coins had been issued then, however, for at that time Uncle Sam wasn’t making commemorative coinage the practice didn’t start until 1892. Used with permission from Heritage Auctions (The Declaration’s centennial in 1876 had led to the staging of a lavish exposition in Philadelphia. This milestone inspired a national celebration which included the production of two special coins by the U.S.

Few foresaw the financial disaster that loomed only three years down the line.Īmid the self-indulgence and the widespread preoccupation with material possessions, Americans took time in 1926 for a “party” with deeper significance: Jmarked the sesquicentennial, or 150th anniversary, of the Declaration of Independence.

“Silent Cal” seemed to have a point: Wall Street was actually running America’s show, and the nation appeared to be flourishing. “The business of America is business” was the way Coolidge had put it just a year earlier, in a speech to the American Society of Newspaper Editors. Personal income was on the rise, new consumer goods were pouring into the marketplace, and Americans had been given a painless new way to pay for all those flivvers and Frigidaires. God was in His heaven, Calvin Coolidge was in the White House, and all seemed well with the world. By 1926, the frenzied Roaring Twenties was in a full-throated roar.

Us liberty coins 1926 used