Legislation passed in the U.S. Senate Feb. 17 seeks a three-coin commemorative coin program for 2024 to recognize abolitionist Harriet Tubman.

Passed by voice vote without amendment is S. 697, the Harriet Tubman Bicentennial Commemorative Coin Act, originally introduced March 11, 2021, by Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev.

The legislation, which now moves to the House for consideration, seeks production and release by the U.S. Mint of, in Proof and Uncirculated versions combined, up to 50,000 gold $5 coins, 400,000 .999 fine silver dollars and 750,000 copper nickel clad half dollars.

The bill calls for surcharges to be added to the purchase price of each coin, with a $35 for the gold coins, $10 for each silver dollar and $5 for each copper-nickel clad half dollar.

After the U.S. Mint recoups all of its production and associated costs, the net surcharges are to be divided equally and forwarded to he Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the Harriet Tubman Home Inc., in Auburn, New York, “for the purpose of accomplishing and advancing their missions.”

Tubman was a formerly enslaved abolitionist who escaped in 1849 from the plantation of Anthony Thompson in Maryland. During the 1850s, Tubman managed to make 13 trips back to Maryland to guide approximately 70 people from slavery to freedom by way of the Underground Railroad and provided instruction to some 70 more on how to safely escape.

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