Grant Memorial coinage

The two coins, identical in design and sculpted by Laura Gardin Fraser, portrayed Grant on the obverse and his birthplace in Ohio on the reverse.

[1] His father was able to get him an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York in 1839; his name was entered as Ulysses S. Grant by mistake, and he chose to keep this name.

He was more successful once the Civil War began and he re-entered the military; after a series of victories, President Lincoln appointed him General in chief of Union Armies in late 1863.

In April 1865, Grant effectively ended the war by capturing Richmond, Virginia and soon after forcing the surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.

[2] The Ulysses S. Grant Centenary Memorial Association was incorporated in 1921 to conduct the celebrations in Clermont County, Ohio, where Point Pleasant is.

[3] In 1922, commemorative coins were not sold by the government—Congress, in authorizing legislation, usually designated an organization that had the exclusive right to purchase them at face value and vend them to the public at a premium.

[5] A bill for a Grant Memorial gold dollar to commemorate the 100th anniversary of his birth was introduced into the House of Representatives by Charles C. Kearns of Ohio on May 11, 1921.

The report also said the Grant Commission had been established in May 1921, and that it was prepared to purchase all the coins and resell them through the hundreds of banks in Ohio eager to vend them.

After the committee amendments were agreed to, Richard W. Parker of New Jersey had a number of questions, querying whether the bill's language meant that the Grant Commission would get the coins for free.

Otis Wingo of Arkansas asked several questions in a colloquy with Kearns, resulting in the House being informed that since the gold coins would be struck from bullion already on hand, and as the bill obliged the Commission to pay for the coinage dies used, there would be no expense to the government.

Reed Smoot of Utah noticed from the report that the entire bill—except the enacting clause—had been re-written, and questioned this; in response, Willis asked that the chairman of the Banking Committee, McLean, explain this.

[12] The Commission of Fine Arts was charged by a 1921 executive order by President Harding with rendering advisory opinions on public artworks, including coins.

[15] On February 12, 1922, Laura Fraser wrote to the Director of the Mint, Raymond T. Baker, expressing her gratitude at being selected and stating that she was already at work and hoped to have the plaster models of the new coins in time for the next CFA meeting.

She asked for assistance in obtaining an official letter of appointment to design the pieces, as she had experienced difficulty in getting paid for her work on the Alabama coin.

[17] On March 3, James Fraser wrote to CFA chairman Charles S. Moore, stating that he had inspected the models and gave his approval.

[17] On the coin, Grant wears a military coat, as he did during the Civil War, but the closely cropped beard suggests he is meant to look as he did in the years after the conflict.

The type of house was misidentified by Secretary of the Treasury Andrew W. Mellon in his annual report for 1922 as a log cabin, confusing it with one Grant built in his thirties on his wife's farm near St.

[20] At the time of issue, Frank Duffield, editor of The Numismatist (the journal of the American Numismatic Association) stated that on the coin the house and its surroundings may be intended to look like they did when Grant was born, the building seems dwarfed by the trees, and "for the sake of better effect a little of the realism might have been sacrificed without detracting from historic interest".

[22] Art historian Cornelius Vermeule, in his volume on the U.S. Mint's coins and medals, admired Laura Fraser's design: "The only possible criticism, that the larger lettering is too large, fades when the curvatures of actual flans are studied.

All strikings took place in March 1922 with the excess coins over the even thousands reserved for inspection and testing at the 1923 meeting of the annual Assay Commission.

[32] In the December 1922 issue of The Numismatist, Nichols placed an advertisement warning that sales would close on January 1, 1923, and offering the no-star half dollar at $.75 each in lots of ten.

[33] The Grant Commission sold the entire issue of gold pieces, but returned 750 of the half dollars with stars and 27,650 of those without to the Mint for redemption and melting.