On one side of the new $100 gold coin from the U.S. Mint is the image of an eagle in flight, “with eyes toward opportunity and a determination to attain it,” a news release on the coin states.
On the other side, there is the depiction of Liberty. And this time, she is an African American woman.
“Lady Liberty, as depicted in coinage throughout the years, is modeled after our society’s continued evolution,” Elisa Basnight, U.S. Mint chief of staff, said during an event Thursday. “As we as a nation, continue to evolve, so does Liberty’s representation.”
The 2017 American Liberty 225th Anniversary Gold Coin, which will be released in April, marks the first time that Liberty will be portrayed as a black woman, at least to the best of the U.S. Mint’s knowledge.
In her remarks earlier this week – during a kickoff of the Mint’s anniversary celebration – Basnight noted that “we like to say at the mint, that our coins are the metallic footprints of our nation’s history,” and symbolize what America values and honors. In a blog post, Rhett Jeppson, principal deputy director of the U.S. Mint, wrote that this gold coin reflected both the past and future.
“The coin demonstrates our roots in the past through such traditional elements as the inscriptions United States of America, Liberty, E Pluribus Unum and In God We Trust,” Jeppson said in the post. “We boldly look to the future by casting Liberty in a new light, as an African-American woman wearing a crown of stars, looking forward to ever brighter chapters in our Nation’s history book.”
The $100 gold collectible coin is part of a series that will “depict an allegorical Liberty in a variety of contemporary forms-including designs representing Asian-Americans, Hispanic-Americans and Indian-Americans among others to reflect the cultural and ethnic diversity of the United States,” according to the news release on the coin. The price of the coins will be about $1,500, Mint spokesman Michael White told USA Today.
Jeppson said that in a way, the idea for the coin is tied to the act that created the U.S. Mint. That act instructed the Mint on how to make coins, Jeppson said, and was very specific.
“Our Founding Fathers wanted ideals on their coins,” Jeppson said. “So really, what you see us doing today is trying to embody the ideal of Liberty, interpreted today, in a modern way, with recognition in honoring our past, recognizing that, but looking to who we are as a people today.”
The Mint, he said, “really wanted people to have a conversation about Liberty.”
