On June 20, 1945, about four million people jammed onto the streets of New York City for a World War II victory parade. Buried in the the crowd was a young artist and junior U.S. Mint engraver, Frank Gasparro (1909-2001) hoping for a glimpse of his hero, 5-Star General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Towards the end of the parade, Frank did get a brief glimpse of his hero, and that one fleeting moment changed future U.S. numismatic history. As soon as he returned to the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia, Gasparro made a sketch that captured Eisenhower's strong and determined gaze. Twenty-Six years later that sketch became the inspiration for one of America's most legendary modern coins – the Eisenhower Dollar. The story of the Eisenhower Dollar starts with the Apollo 11 space mission. On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first person to set foot on the moon. With America caught up in "space fever", the U.S. Mint looked for a way to honor this world-changing moon-landing event and it needed a coin as impressive as the achievement itself. So the one-dollar coin was resurrected. That large coin size/denomination hadn't been used since 1935, the final year of the Peace Silver Dollar. At the same time, the Mint wanted to honor Dwight D. Eisenhower, who died shortly before Apollo 11. Since as president, Eisenhower helped create NASA -- and without his vision, the moon landing might never have happened -- Eisenhower and Apollo 11 became the perfect match for this coin. So Frank Gasparro began work on mating his old 26 year old sketch of Eisenhower with the Apollo 11 Misssion Insignia to create this new coin. The Eisenhower Dollar was minted from 1971 through 1978. However there are no Eisenhower Dollars dated 1975, since that entire year was used to strike the 1976 bicentenial dollars which had a special reverse featuring the Liberty Bell. Special 40% Silver Ikes were struck for Collectors at the San Francisco mint throughout the series. These coins were basically unloved and little used during their short run, but have been undergoing a collector resurrection in recent years due to their large size, low cost, and short run making collecting the complete set a relatively low cost endeavor. However it should be noted that extremely high-grade business strikes are quite rare and expensive due to their low field populations -- PCGS lists MS67 business strikes as having a fair market value of between $4,000 and $15,000 each, depending on the year. High grade proofs remain very low priced however -- I just bought this near perfect 40% Silver Deep-Cameo PR69-graded first-year-issue Proof for $38.
I like Ike and Ike dollar coins! I tend to pick up these whenever I come across them since they can be had for just a little bit over face.
Great post! I've loved Ike's for a while and recently found my childhood collection. In a very short time, I've expanded that collection with many wonderful varieties, error's, silver business, silver & clad proofs, etc...Great coins! Great to find older coins that are not so expensive to collect anymore!
I like the Ike dollar. I think it's a very under-rated set. Ike did create NASA, so there is some connection to the moon landing. The pairing is a result of a committee compromise, but at least we did get a coin! It was Kennedy's vision who set the goal to go to the Moon, however.
