The United States Mint is accepting advance subscription orders for the Presidential silver medal honoring Andrew Johnson before sales officially begin sometime this summer.

The Abraham Lincoln Presidential silver medal was released to the public May 1.

The Presidential silver medals are currently being offered at $75 per medal, with no household ordering limits or mintage restrictions; the silver issues are part of the Mint’s ongoing medals catalog.

The Presidential .999 silver medals exhibit a Matte Finish, have a plain edge and measure 1.598 inches or 40.6 millimeters in diameter, the same as the American Eagle silver dollar. The medals contain an ounce of pure silver.

The silver Presidential medals are being struck without Mint mark at the San Francisco Mint.

The obverse and reverse designs for the Andrew Johnson medal replicate former U.S. Mint Assistant Engraver Anthony Paquet’s designs rendered in 1865 for Johnson’s Indian peace medal.

The 19th century Johnson Peace medals are attributed as IP-40 in numismatic author R.W. Julian’s reference Medals of the United States Mint: The First Century 1792–1892. Paquet’s designer’s signature appears on both obverse and reverse.

On the obverse, the signature appears in the field below and left of the truncation of Johnson’s portrait as PAQUET F for “Paquet Fecit,” with “Fecit” translated from the Latin as “made it.”

On the reverse,  PAQUET F appears in the exergue.

The Johnson silver medal obverse features a portrait facing right of Johnson.

Paquet had been commissioned by the Bureau of Indian Affairs for new Lincoln medal designs for a second term, but Lincoln’s assassination interrupted those plans. Paquet executed a Johnson portrait paired with the reverse originally designed for the second term Lincoln peace medal.

That reverse illustrates a bust of George Washington atop an altar inscribed PEACE within an open wreath. An allegorical America, in the guise of Columbia, shakes the hand of an Indian chief. Implements of war and peace are in the background.

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