PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The U.S. Mint in Philadelphia hosted a ceremonial strike on Tuesday for the 2024 Harriet Tubman commemorative coins program.
Born enslaved on a Maryland plantation, Harriet Tubman found freedom in Pennsylvania in 1849, with the help of the Underground Railroad network of safe homes. She then joined the Railroad to help conduct many others to freedom as well.
The program celebrates the bicentennial of Tubman’s birth, forever memorializing the activist who guided many enslaved people to freedom with Tuesday’s strike of her likeness onto the first coin.
“It's about time that this Moses of our people is recognized in such an amazing way, that people all across this nation will have an opportunity to memorialize her in this way with the U.S. Mint,” said Rev. Dr. Steven Pogue, pastor of the Greater Centennial African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in New York City.
That anticipation was echoed by U.S. Mint Director Ventris Gibson — who has made history, herself, as the mint's first Black director. “I have chills,” she shared. “I am honored to be a part of this part of our history as a nation.”
The mint will produce up to 50,000 $5 gold coins, 400,000 $1 silver coins and 750,000 half-dollar coins, each following the three periods of Tubman’s life and work.
"The artist designs the coin. We then make a metal out of steel to press against that blank round, and it strikes it, and then the emblem appears on the coin,” Gibson explained.
The silver dollar reflects her work with the Underground Railroad, the half-dollar represents her work during the Civil War as a Union nurse and scout, and the $5 gold coin represents her life after the war.
Surcharges will be added for each coin, with the proceeds benefiting the Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged in Auburn, New York, as well as the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. The coins will be available for purchase on Jan. 4.