The production team at the Philadelphia Mint has had its challenges developing and executing the Proof 1776~2026-P Semiquincentennial, Freedom Ringing, Liberty Bell 1-ounce .999 fine gold $250 coin, half-ounce gold $125 coin and half-ounce .999 fine silver medal all in the shape of the iconic representation of American freedom

The numismatic products are slated for a July 16 sales release, with mintages for each option limited to 2,026 pieces.

According to Michael Costello,  director of the design and engraving department of the U.S. Mint, development of the Liberty Bell-shaped numismatic products started in mid-2024. The department was tasked with determining if the coinage presses had the capabilities of rendering a non-round coin. The blank shape would go through multiple  iterations before the final profile was determined.

Costello indicated the bureau procured prototype blanks from an outside vendor and fabricated the necessary tooling around that.

When the project was contemplated, the Mint’s engraver manager, Matthew Hill, said the department’s team was not yet well versed on the production capabilities of the newer coinage presses at the main production facility in Philadelphia.

The team was unsure how the materials employed in die production would react under stresses associated with such a blank shape and die shape, until development reached a form suitable for manufacture.

“Years of planning and innovation have culminated in these unique coins and medals honoring the Liberty Bell’s timeless message of hope and perseverance,” Hill stated.

The research and development initiative to begin the project ventured into unfamiliar areas for the production team.

Matthew Newell, a product design specialist on the U.S. Mint’s engraving staff, was tagged to digitally design and sculpt the obverse and reverse designs — the obverse bearing the Liberty Bell motif, and the reverse maintaining the bell shape but carrying also a rendering of Independence Hall, which is situated in Independence National Historical Park. The reverse design device seemed an obvious choice, Newell said, as he walks past it each day on his way to work at the Philadelphia Mint.

The Liberty Bell was moved from its longtime home in Independence Hall to a nearby glass pavilion on Independence National Historical Park during the nation’s Bicentennial in 1976, and from there to the larger Liberty Bell Center adjacent to the pavilion in 2003.

Steven Bernstein, a laser-engraving engineer at the Philadelphia Mint, said the working dies for the Liberty Bell products are fully engraved by laser as the cutting tool. The laser burns away metal to replicate the design elements created by Hill. Different laser frosting intensities applied to different areas of the design provide contrast.

Technical details

Two gold coins and the silver medal are being minted on a German-made Sack and Kiesselbach TMP 250 Hydraulic Press (see sack-kiesselbach.de/en/for press details).

To bring up the high relief on each Freedom Ringing, Liberty Bell issue, the gold $250 coin needs four strikes at 35 metric tons per strike; the gold $125 coin requires three strikes at 43 metric tons per strike and the silver medal requires three strikes at 44 metric tons per strike.

Sunshine Minting Inc., headquartered in Henderson, Nevada, provided finished planchets for all the coins and medals.

Each die starts as round bar stock and is machined into the bell profile on a Mikron HSM-200 CNC Machining Center, according to the Mint spokesperson. The blank die face is hand polished, and the artwork is laser engraved and frosted using an Acsys Piranha Femto Laser.

In the coin press, the upper hammer die carries the obverse design, with the reverse oriented as the lower die, the anvil die.

The two gold coins and one silver medal are produced with a smooth, or plain edge.

Each collar, the edge die, is made from a solid piece of round A-2 Tool steel. The profile is cut in using a CNC Wire EDM (computerized numerically controlled, electrical discharge machine) and honed to the final surface finish required using an aluminum oxide extrusion media.

Each finished planchet is hand polished and manually set into the coining chamber for striking.

A two-minute, 33-second video illustrating the development process is found online at www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hoc3BCInpsU.