A collector who wants "everything," might want to start with the Eisenhower dollar coin.
"Here's a series that offers it all. Yet, as a series, it's probably the most underrated of all. It enjoys little or no respect among most dealers and is seriously and inadequately served," writes James Barlow in the preface to the CONECA Attribution Guide to Eisenhower Dollar Die Varieties by author James Wiles, published on behalf of Combined Organizations of Numismatic Error Collectors of America.
The Eisenhower dollar is often referred to as the "Ike" dollar, derived from the nickname that, according to various sources, Dwight D. Eisenhower apparently acquired as a child and bore most of his life. According to the June 2007 issue of Coin Values, the nickname became part of a campaign slogan, "I Like Ike," during Eisenhower's 1952 presidential campaign. In the 1952 election, "Ike," a hero of World War II, swept the nation except for the South. In the 1956 election, his popularity helped him gain support in the South.
"Eisenhower was like a god," Mint Chief Engraver Frank Gasparro, designer of the Eisenhower dollar, is quoted as saying in Eisenhower: The Man, The Dollar and The Stamps by Thomas W. Becker. "People spoke his name in awe and reverence; they regarded him as the world's savior."
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TWO-TERM PRESIDENT and hero of World War II Dwight D. Eisenhower's portrait was selected for the obverse of a circulating dollar coin issued from 1971 to 1978. The reverse from 1971 to 1974 and 1977 commemorates the Apollo 11 moon landing. The reverse design is an adaptation of the official Apollo 11 insignia.
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Eisenhower served as president from January 1953 to January 1961. Among the highlights of his presidency were signing legislation authorizing creation of a national interstate system of roadways in June 1956; enforcing school desegregation in Little Rock, Ark., in September 1957 (see related article, Page 99); and signing the bill into law in 1958 that created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Issued from 1971 through 1978, the Eisenhower dollar holds the distinction of being the first copper-nickel clad dollar issued by the U.S. Mint. Circulation issues and some collector versions are of a composition of two outer layers of 75 percent copper and 25 percent nickel bonded to a core of pure copper.
It was also issued in a silver-copper clad composition, consisting of two outer layers composed of 80 percent silver and 20 percent copper, with an inner core made of 21.5 percent silver and 78.5 percent copper, with a total silver fineness of 40 percent. The Mint issued both metallic versions in Brilliant Uncirculated and Proof collector editions.
The obverse design by Gasparro bears a portrait of Eisenhower, based on the artist's impressions generated after he saw Eisenhower in a victory parade in 1945 after the end of World War II.
Two reverse designs were issued, both bearing tributes to America's lunar exploration, which Eisenhower helped set into motion by signing NASA into law.
From 1971 to 1974 and 1977 to 1978, the reverse depicts an American eagle preparing to land on the Moon's surface, commemorating the Apollo 11 moon landing. The reverse design is Gasparro's adaptation of the official Apollo 11 insignia. Thirteen stars arc around the design, which includes an idealistic view of the Earth's Western Hemisphere as seen from the moon.
In 1975 and 1976, a Bicentennial reverse design by Dennis R. Williams of the Liberty Bell superimposed on the Moon. The only change to the obverse design during the Bicentennial issue was a dual date of 1776-1976.
Eisenhower died in March 28, 1969, four months prior to the moon landing.
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THE EISENHOWER DOLLAR reverse in 1975 and 1976 featured the Liberty Bell superimposed on the Moon. The only change to the obverse design for the Bicentennial issue was a dual date of 1776-1976.
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The Eisenhower dollar was authorized by Public Law 91-607, signed by President Nixon on Dec. 31, 1970.
Collecting the dollar
Becker writes that the "Eisenhower dollar is unique in many respects."
The coin is the first U.S. coin to honor the space program; the second nongold U.S. dollar to commemorate a single president (Washington is depicted on the Lafayette dollar); the first commemorative silver dollar designed in the 20th century; the first dollar coin issued after 36 years; and the first Proof dollar coin struck since 1922.
Wiles offers several reasons to collect the Eisenhower dollar:
? It celebrates and commemorates the life of a well-respected, beloved leader whose recognized achievements are of a global scale.
? The series contains non-Cameo Proofs, Cameo Proofs, deep-Cameo Proofs in silver and copper-nickel clad.
? It offers Proof and Brilliant Uncirculated, silver and non-silver, 1776-1976 Bicentennial issues.
? Among the strikes are "varieties galore and errors aplenty," including doubled dies, tripled dies, incomplete errors, cuds, unstruck blanks and planchets, unusual die breaks, struck-through pieces and die classes.
Among the most significant error Eisenhower dollars are circulation-issue 1974-D, 1776-1976-D and 1977-D coins struck on silver-copper clad planchets of the type used for collector versions struck at the San Francisco Assay Office.
Researchers speculate that practices involving rejected planchets at the San Francisco Assay Office resulted in the Denver Mint errors. According to The Authoritative Reference on Eisenhower Dollars by John Wexler, Billy Crawford and Kevin Flynn, copper-nickel clad planchets rejected as unsuitable for Proof issues would be shipped from the San Francisco Assay Office to the Denver or Philadelphia Mints to be used for striking regular circulation-strike coins. The book states that it is possible that silver-copper clad planchets intended for Proof strikes at the San Francisco facility but rejected were mixed in with the rejected copper-nickel clad planchets and sent to the Denver Mint, where they were struck and issued.
Gary G. Wagnon Sr. calls the series a "gold mine of die varieties for the collector" in the foreword of the book by Flynn, Wexler and Crawford.
Production begins
Total mintage figures for 1971 are 47,799,000 coins from the Philadelphia Mint and 68,587,424 1971-D coins for circulation. The San Francisco Assay Office struck 6,868,530 1971-S silver-copper clad dollars in Brilliant Uncirculated. The same facility struck 4,265,234 Proof versions (also in silver-copper clad) in higher relief. A popular die state of the Proof 1971-S Eisenhower silver-copper clad dollar exists with a footless R in LIBERTY on the obverse from an overpolished die (the "Peg Leg" variety, as it is nicknamed).
The Proof 1971-S Eisenhower silver-copper clad dollar is known to dealers and collectors as the "Brown Ike." The coin was housed in a hard plastic holder of the same dimensions as used for the standard five-coin Proof sets, with the plastic holder inserted into a plastic tray within a brown box made of cardboard. The Brilliant Uncirculated 1971-S Eisenhower silver-copper clad dollar is nicknamed the "Blue Ike"; it was housed in a pliofilm holder like that used for Uncirculated Mint sets, and placed within a blue envelope. Both collector options were also offered in 1972, 1973 and 1974. Sales of both silver-copper clad coins fell after the highs of 1971.
In 1972, the Philadelphia Mint struck some circulation-issue Eisenhower dollars from dies with the same high relief as used in 1971 for the Proof strikes; some price guides list these somewhat rare pieces as "Variety II" dollars. The "Variety I" coins listed in some price guides are more accurately called the Low Relief coins (the intended version, considered very common). The Philadelphia Mint struck a third version of 1972 with a modified high relief made standard for all issues of both compositions and all finishes in 1973 and 1974; the 1972 issues ("Variety III") are considered scarce.
The 1973 Eisenhower dollars are notable for several reasons.
The standard Proof sets were expanded to six coins to include a Proof 1973-S version of the copper-nickel clad dollar (the first Proof dollar in that composition).
Philadelphia Mint and Denver Mint circulation-quality coins were added to the 1973 and subsequent Uncirculated Mint sets until the Eisenhower dollar's end in 1978.
In fact, the 1973 Uncirculated Mint set was the only source for circulation-quality 1973 and 1973-D Eisenhower dollars. Apparently the Federal Reserve's inventories of the 1971 and 1972 coins were sufficient to meet circulation demand for the coins.
After the one-year hiatus in circulation production, the Mint struck the coin for circulation every year from 1974 to 1978, although it struck no 1975-dated pieces. Congress authorized special Bicentennial reverses for the quarter dollar, half dollar and dollar for 1976, and Mint officials decided to begin production of the Bicentennial coins in mid-1975. The Denver Mint struck some 1974-D dollars in 1975 in order to ensure sufficient production of the denomination until the Bicentennial dollars were released in October 1975.
Production of regular-design Eisenhower dollars resumed in 1977 and continued in 1978, the last year of production.
The dollar coins did circulate, to a degree.
According to Q. David Bowers in Silver Dollars & Trade Dollars of the United States: A Complete Encyclopedia, the Eisenhower dollars were used in everyday commerce, especially in the West, though not to the extent the government had anticipated. (Dollar coins generally have not circulated widely.) The coins were used in casinos, which had been major users of silver dollars until the mid-1960s when Treasury vaults were virtually emptied of the once-vast inventories of Morgan and Peace dollars.
"The timing of the Eisenhower dollar played against the coins' acceptance," according to the book by Wexler, Crawford and Flynn.
This was a time when a wave of anti-government sentiment swept across the United States following the Vietnam War; President Richard Nixon (Eisenhower's vice president) had resigned over Watergate; and there were fewer coin collectors than there had been when silver coins were in general circulation. The coin's denomination also played against general acceptance. Most people preferred to carry paper dollars, thinking the coin was too big to carry around.
The coins are of the same diameter as the Morgan dollars and Peace dollars (38.1 millimeters, 1.5 inches). The weight of the circulating copper-nickel clad dollars, 22.68 grams, although less than that of the two older, silver dollars, 26.73 grams, is still heavier than the other coin denominations in circulation.
Public Law 95-447 discontinued minting of the Eisenhower circulating dollar coin as of Dec. 31, 1978, and authorized issuance of a smaller-diameter dollar, the Anthony dollar coin.
Eisenhower's image reappeared on a U.S. in 1990 with the 1990 Eisenhower Centennial silver dollar, which commemorates his 100th birthday anniversary. The coin is .900 fine silver with a weight of 26.73 grams and diameter of 1.5 inches. Maximum mintage of Proof and Uncirculated versions was not to exceed 4 million pieces. The Proof version of the coin was struck at the Philadelphia Mint and bears a P Mint mark. The Uncirculated version was struck at the West Point Mint with a W Mint mark.
The commemorative coin's obverse design features dual portraits of Eisenhower as a civilian and as a military man, "a design unique in American coinage history," according to an Aug. 22, 1990, issue of Coin World.
A portrait of the Eisenhower home in Gettysburg, Pa., appears on the reverse of the coin.
Eisenhower's image is slated to appear on another dollar coin in 2015 as part of the U.S. Mint's Presidential dollar coin program.
