On February 18, 2010, the United States Mint will release to the Federal Reserve Banks the first new Presidential $1 Coin of 2010, honoring former President Millard Fillmore. Beginning at noon Eastern Time (ET) the same day, the agency also will accept orders for rolls of Millard Fillmore Presidential $1 Coins at its online catalog, http://www.usmint.gov/catalog.

Each roll, priced at $35.95, contains 25 circulating quality $1 coins from either the United States Mint at Philadelphia or Denver. The coins are wrapped in specially designed packaging that displays the mint of origin (P or D), the face value of the contents ($25) and the genuine United States Mint logo.

Both the obverse (heads side) and the reverse (tails side) of the Millard Fillmore Presidential $1 Coin were designed and sculpted by United States Mint Sculptor-Engraver Don Everhart. The obverse design features Fillmore’s dramatic portrait and the inscriptions MILLARD FILLMORE, IN GOD WE TRUST, 13TH PRESIDENT and 1850-1853. The reverse design-common to all Presidential $1 Coins-features a striking rendition of the Statue of Liberty, the coin’s face value and the inscription UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. The inscriptions 2010, E PLURIBUS UNUM and the mint of origin are incused on the coin’s edge.

Customers also may order the Millard Fillmore Presidential $1 Coins by calling 1-800-USA-MINT (872-6468). Hearing- and speech-impaired customers may call 1-888-321-MINT (6468). A shipping and handling fee of $4.95 will be added to all domestic orders. As an added convenience, customers may also sign up for the Presidential $1 Coin Two-Roll Set Subscription to receive future rolls of the coins as they are released. Visit http://www.usmint.gov/catalog for more information about this convenient ordering method.

Millard Fillmore was born in a log cabin on January 7, 1800, in Locke (now Summerhill), New York. After studying with a county judge, he began to practice law in 1823. In 1828, Fillmore entered politics, serving as a New York state assemblyman and later in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he chaired the powerful Committee on Ways and Means. While comptroller of New York, he was elected to serve as President Zachary Taylor’s vice president in 1848. Upon Taylor’s death in July 1850, Fillmore became President. After two unsuccessful bids for election to the presidency in his own right, Fillmore retired to Buffalo, New York, where he died on March 8, 1874. (more…)

The United States Mint announced today that it will begin accepting orders for its 2010 Presidential $1 Coin Proof Set on February 11, 2010, at noon Eastern Time.

The set contains four proof versions of the circulating Presidential $1 Coins scheduled to be released this year, bearing the portraits of Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan and Abraham Lincoln. Each coin has a common reverse design featuring a striking rendition of the Statue of Liberty.

The term “proof” refers to a manufacturing process in which specially treated coin blanks are struck multiple times with specially polished dies to create a brilliant, sharp relief and mirror-like background. A frosted, sculpted foreground gives the proof coin a special “cameo” effect. The “S” mint mark, representing production at the United States Mint at San Francisco, is inscribed on the edge of each coin.

The 2010 United States Mint Presidential $1 Coin Proof Set is priced at $15.95 each. Customers may place their orders at the United States Mint’s Web site, http://www.usmint.gov/catalog, or at the toll-free number, 1-800-USA-MINT (872-6468). Hearing- and speech-impaired customers with TTY equipment may order at 1-888-321-MINT (6468). A shipping and handling charge of $4.95 per order will be added to all domestic orders. There is no household order limit for this product. (more…)

NGC has received a number of the new 2010 cents for certification.

The numismatic press recently announced that the new 2010 cents having a shield reverse were inexplicably released in Puerto Rico in advance of their scheduled February release date. NGC has received a number of these for certification, and the novelty of these coins makes them worthy of comment. The obverse remains unchanged from recent years, with the exception of some sharpening of the initials “VDB” at the truncation of Lincoln’s bust. The reverse has been replaced entirely, representing a retirement of the 50-year-old Lincoln Memorial design and last year’s four commemorative types. In their place is a Union shield of thirteen vertical stripes topped by a chief bearing the incuse legend E PLURIBUS UNUM. The value ONE CENT is inscribed in relief on a banner superimposed across the vertical stripes. The legend UNITED STATES OF AMERICA appears around the upper periphery in raised letters, while the initials “LB” of the designer (Lyndall Bass) and “JLM” of the sculptor (Joseph Menna) are beneath the banner at either side of the shield.

This design is not entirely original, as it closely resembles pattern cents designed and sculpted by Charles E. Barber in 1896 (numbers J-1767 through 1769 in the Judd pattern book). Unlike the originals, however, the new 2010 cents omit the traditional visual language of heraldry in which white stripes are represented by a plain texture, red stripes are represented by fine, vertical lines within them and the blue chief is represented by horizontal lines. The new cent has the “red” stripes in faintly higher relief that is observable only with close examination, while the chief is not colored heraldically at all. The impression is thus given that the entire shield is of a single color, the lack of distinction being particularly egregious with respect to the stripes. (more…)