Little Rock Dollar a Coin of the Year Winner
- With Juneteenth now a holiday in the United States celebrating the end of slavery in the United States, I was wondering if any “End of Slavery” coins (e.g. Cuba, Brazil) ever won a Most Historically Significant Coin of the Year Award?
In 2009, the Best Contemporary Event award was won by the 2007 U.S. silver dollar marking the desegregation of Little Rock Central High School in 1957. This is as close as I could find to “End of Slavery” as a theme.
What is the first numismatic item addressing slavery in the United States?
In 1871 the U.S. Mint issued a Lincoln and Emancipation Proclamation medal in gold, the single medal being presented to the Pennsylvania National Guard in December of that year. In more modern history, identical 1.75-inch diameter bronze medals cataloged as U.S. Mint Medal No. 624 have been issued. This is the first post-slavery issue by the United States.
- Were there any abolitionist coins, medals or tokens issued prior to the Emancipation Proclamation?
In 1787, the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade issued a bronze token on which a naked African male is shown kneeling on the obverse, accompanied by the legend “Am I Not a Man and a Brother.” The reverse depicts two hands clasped in friendship. The organization influenced the subsequent abolition of the slave trade by the British.
- Britain abolished the slave trade in 1807. Is that event marked on any British or other nation’s coinage?
In 1807 and again in 1834 medals were issued in Britain. The obverse of the 1807 medal depicts the standing figures of a clothed European shaking hands with a naked African. The legend reads “We are all brethren.” Groups of Africans dancing naked under a tree, plantation huts and former slaves plowing the fields appear in the background. The 1834 medal focus is on partially clothed Africans dancing under a palm tree.
- The American Colonization Society resettled former African American slaves in Liberia. Did the ACS issue any anti-slavery coins, medals or tokens?
The ACS planned to send freed slaves to Africa as an alternative to their emancipation in the United States. Liberia, where the former slaves were sent, became an independent country in 1847. In 1833, the ACS issued 1-cent tokens for Liberia. These tokens depict a naked African standing under a palm tree shaking his fist at a departing slave ship off the coast. It appears the tokens were produced in a private mint in Belleville, N.J.
