MARCH 21
2013•5-Star Generals Commemoratives
2023•American Women Quarters
The 5-Star Generals Commemorative Coin Program Goes on Sale
On March 21, 2013, the United States Mint opened sales for the 5-Star Generals Commemorative Coin Program, a three-coin series honoring Douglas MacArthur, George C. Marshall, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Henry “Hap” Arnold and Omar N. Bradley. The five men were connected by more than the five-star rank they achieved during the Second World War era: each had attended or taught at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Their portraits were divided among a $5 gold coin, a silver dollar and a clad half dollar, while the reverses tied the entire program back to the military school that helped educate generations of American commanders.
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March 21, 2013
At noon Eastern Time, the United States Mint opened public sales for the 2013 5-Star Generals Commemorative Coin Program.
The program included three denominations, each available in proof and uncirculated versions.
Collectors could also purchase a limited three-coin proof set.
The honored officers were:
- Douglas MacArthur;
- George C. Marshall;
- Dwight D. Eisenhower;
- Henry “Hap” Arnold;
- Omar N. Bradley.
All five reached the extraordinary five-star level during or after World War II.
Every general honored by the coins had attended or taught at the United States Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
The commemorative program coincided with the 132nd anniversary of the institution's founding.
That shared educational connection gave the three coins a coherent theme.
The institution traces its origin to 1881.
Its purpose was to educate officers for increasingly complex command and staff responsibilities.
Modern warfare requires far more than courage on a battlefield.
Armies must coordinate logistics, intelligence, communications, planning, transportation, artillery, air power and enormous numbers of personnel.
The college developed officers' ability to think beyond the immediate tactical fight.
Students learned how to plan operations, manage staffs and coordinate large formations.
Those skills became increasingly important as American military operations grew in scale.
Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, is one of the oldest active U.S. Army posts west of the Mississippi River.
Its location became synonymous with professional military education.
The commemorative coins repeatedly reference Fort Leavenworth through their reverse designs.
Five-star rank is exceptionally rare in American military history.
During World War II, Congress authorized the grade of General of the Army to establish American commanders at a level comparable to the highest Allied ranks.
The insignia consists of five stars arranged in a pentagonal pattern.
The five-star grade was created for extraordinary wartime command circumstances.
It was not intended to become a routine promotion level.
Only a tiny number of Americans have ever held equivalent five-star grades.
The Army's Five-Star Generals
The men honored in 2013 represented the Army's famous World War II-era five-star leadership.
George Marshall, Douglas MacArthur, Dwight Eisenhower and Henry Arnold received five-star rank during the war.
Omar Bradley was promoted later, in 1950.
Henry “Hap” Arnold occupied a special place in American military history.
He became General of the Army and later held the title General of the Air Force.
He remains the only person to have held that five-star Air Force rank.
The 5-Star Generals Commemorative Coin Act became Public Law 111-262 on October 8, 2010.
The law authorized the Treasury to mint coins recognizing the five commanders and their connection to the Command and General Staff College.
Congress authorized up to:
- 100,000 $5 gold coins;
- 500,000 silver dollars;
- 750,000 clad half dollars.
Proof and uncirculated versions shared those maximums.
A congressional mintage ceiling is not a production total.
The Mint generally produces commemoratives in response to anticipated and actual demand.
If collectors do not order the maximum number, the Mint does not need to strike the full authorization.
The gold coin honors General Douglas MacArthur.
His portrait appears on the obverse beside the five-star insignia.
The inscriptions include his name, LIBERTY, IN GOD WE TRUST and the date 2013.
MacArthur's military career spanned decades and several major conflicts.
He served in World War I, became Army Chief of Staff, commanded in the Philippines, played a central role in the Pacific War and later led United Nations forces during the Korean War.
MacArthur's withdrawal from the Philippines in 1942 and later return became one of the most famous narratives of the Pacific War.
His public persona was unusually powerful for a military officer.
Dark glasses, corncob pipe and command cap became instantly recognizable symbols.
After Japan's surrender, MacArthur served as Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers during the occupation.
His responsibilities extended beyond battlefield command into political and institutional reconstruction.
MacArthur's career ended amid a dramatic civil-military confrontation.
President Harry Truman relieved him of command in 1951 after disagreements over Korean War policy.
The episode remains a defining American example of civilian authority over the military.
MacArthur's connection to the Command and General Staff College made him part of the commemorative program's central educational theme.
The coin does not attempt to depict every chapter of his controversial career.
It presents him as one of the college's five-star figures.
The Gold Coin Reverse
The reverse depicts the Leavenworth Lamp, a symbol of the Command and General Staff College.
The lamp represents learning and professional military education.
FORT LEAVENWORTH appears prominently in the design.
A battle scene could have represented MacArthur.
A Pacific island could have represented his wartime service.
Instead, the reverse returns to education.
The coin is telling us why these particular generals were grouped together.
Ronald D. Sanders designed the MacArthur obverse, which was sculpted by Michael Gaudioso.
Barbara Fox designed the Leavenworth Lamp reverse, sculpted by Joseph Menna.
The $5 commemorative followed the modern commemorative gold standard of 90 percent gold and 10 percent alloy.
Its denomination echoes the historic half eagle, though its role is entirely different from nineteenth-century circulating $5 gold pieces.
The silver dollar carries two portraits: George C. Marshall and Dwight D. Eisenhower.
The five-star insignia appears above them.
The pairing is historically powerful.
Marshall served as Army Chief of Staff throughout World War II.
Rather than commanding one famous battlefield army, he helped build and direct the enormous American military machine that fought a global war.
Marshall oversaw expansion from a relatively small peacetime Army into a force capable of fighting across multiple continents.
He dealt with personnel, training, command appointments, strategy and coalition warfare on a scale almost unimaginable before the war.
One of Marshall's most consequential decisions was his support for Dwight Eisenhower's rise to senior command.
Eisenhower was not the most obvious prewar celebrity.
Marshall recognized his planning and coalition-management abilities.
Eisenhower became Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe.
He directed the coalition that invaded Normandy in June 1944 and drove toward the defeat of Nazi Germany.
Eisenhower's job required more than military planning.
He had to manage strong personalities, competing national priorities and enormous logistical challenges.
His success depended heavily on staff work—the very discipline associated with Fort Leavenworth.
Eisenhower later became the 34th President of the United States.
That makes him especially familiar to coin collectors.
His portrait appeared on the circulating Eisenhower dollar from 1971 through 1978.
The large copper-nickel Eisenhower dollar was circulating U.S. coinage.
The 2013 silver dollar was a limited commemorative collector issue.
Same man.
Same denomination.
Completely different numismatic purposes.
Marshall's postwar service was equally consequential.
As Secretary of State, he became associated with the European Recovery Program—better known as the Marshall Plan.
He later served as Secretary of Defense.
Marshall received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1953.
His career therefore stretched from military planning to postwar reconstruction and diplomacy.
The Silver Dollar Reverse
The reverse again uses the Leavenworth Lamp, this time incorporating the heraldic crest of Fort Leavenworth.
The inscriptions identify the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College and Fort Leavenworth.
Richard Masters designed the Marshall-Eisenhower obverse, sculpted by Joseph Menna.
Barbara Fox designed the reverse, also sculpted by Menna.
The 2013 silver dollar was composed of 90 percent silver and 10 percent copper.
That composition linked it to the long tradition of U.S. silver commemorative dollars before later statutory changes moved modern commemoratives toward higher silver fineness.
The third coin honors Henry “Hap” Arnold and Omar N. Bradley.
Their portraits appear together beneath the five-star insignia.
Arnold was one of the foundational leaders of American military aviation.
He learned to fly during the pioneering era of aviation and ultimately commanded the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II.
Arnold's career encompassed an extraordinary technological transformation.
Military aviation evolved from experimental machines into a massive force capable of strategic bombing, global transport and air superiority.
During World War II, American air forces remained organizationally within the Army.
The independent United States Air Force was established in 1947.
Arnold's career therefore bridges Army aviation and the birth of the modern Air Force.
Bradley became one of the principal American ground commanders of World War II.
He served in North Africa and Europe and commanded enormous formations during the Allied advance across Western Europe.
Bradley acquired a public reputation for a restrained, soldier-centered leadership style.
The nickname “GI General” contrasted with the more theatrical public image of commanders such as MacArthur and Patton.
After the war, Bradley became the first Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
He received promotion to General of the Army in 1950.
He was the last of the Army officers honored by the 2013 program to receive five-star rank.
The reverse features the heraldic crest of Fort Leavenworth.
Again, the design refuses to turn the coin into a battlefield montage.
The common institution remains the focus.
Mint sculptor-engraver Phebe Hemphill designed and sculpted both sides of the clad half dollar.
That gives the coin a unified artistic authorship.
The half dollar used the familiar copper-nickel clad composition associated with modern circulating half dollars.
Its value as a commemorative came from its limited program, design and collector demand rather than precious-metal content.
The program therefore gave collectors three very different physical objects:
- gold;
- silver;
- copper-nickel clad.
The hierarchy echoed the traditional structure of modern U.S. commemorative programs.
Proof and Uncirculated Versions
Each denomination was offered in proof and uncirculated finishes.
Proof coins emphasized mirrored fields and carefully prepared surfaces.
Uncirculated commemoratives used a different production treatment and appearance.
The Mint offered a proof set containing all three denominations.
Production of that set was limited to 10,000 units.
It provided the entire five-general portrait program in one package.
That is an unusual numismatic structure.
Three obverses collectively contain five different military portraits.
The coins were designed to be understood together.
Five portraits on a single small coin would have been visually crowded.
Dividing them across three denominations allowed larger portraits and gave the program a natural hierarchy.
MacArthur received the single portrait on the highest-denomination coin.
Marshall and Eisenhower share the silver dollar.
Arnold and Bradley share the half dollar.
The legislation and design process created a deliberate distribution of the five honorees.
Congress authorized surcharges of:
- $35 on each gold coin;
- $10 on each silver dollar;
- $5 on each half dollar.
Those funds were authorized for the Command and General Staff College Foundation to support the college's activities.
The surcharge is built into the collector's purchase price.
After statutory requirements are satisfied, proceeds can support the designated beneficiary.
This is the modern descendant of the fundraising function that classic commemorative coins served in the 1890s through 1950s.
Classic commemoratives were often distributed through local commissions or sponsoring organizations.
Modern programs are generally sold directly by the U.S. Mint.
That reduces some of the speculative and distribution problems that plagued earlier commemorative coinage.
The 5-Star Generals coins shared the year with the Girl Scouts of the USA Centennial Silver Dollar.
Congress limits modern commemorative programs more tightly than it did during the chaotic 1930s boom.
American coinage has repeatedly honored military figures.
Washington, Eisenhower and Grant are obvious examples.
Commemoratives allow the Mint to recognize figures whose historical importance may not justify a permanent circulating design.
The shared Fort Leavenworth connection matters.
Without it, the program could look like five famous commanders arbitrarily assembled.
The college turns the group into a story about professional military education.
The Leavenworth Lamp appears on the gold coin.
It appears again with the Fort Leavenworth crest on the silver dollar.
The crest dominates the half dollar reverse.
Every coin returns to the institution.
That is the deeper message of the program.
Five-star rank may appear to celebrate individual greatness.
The reverse designs remind viewers that command is built through education, planning and institutional knowledge.
World War II Required Staff Work on an Unprecedented Scale
Millions of personnel had to be moved, supplied and coordinated across oceans.
Aircraft, ships, armor and infantry had to operate together.
Allied nations had to coordinate strategy.
No commander could manage such a war alone.
Popular history often reduces wars to famous names.
MacArthur.
Eisenhower.
Marshall.
Bradley.
Arnold.
But modern command depends on enormous staffs and institutions.
The Fort Leavenworth theme quietly corrects the myth.
His wartime importance was not based on personally leading troops in one iconic battle.
His achievement was organizational and strategic.
He helped build the system that allowed others to command successfully.
He had to coordinate Americans, British, Canadians and other Allied forces while navigating powerful personalities and political pressures.
That is staff-college work magnified to continental scale.
Air power required industrial production, pilot training, maintenance, logistics, intelligence and doctrine.
The scale of wartime aviation made administration and planning as important as individual flying skill.
By the European campaign's later stages, Bradley was responsible for forces on a scale far beyond the experience of most earlier American commanders.
Command structures had to expand with the battlefield.
His postwar occupation role in Japan required political judgment, administration and institutional reform in addition to military authority.
The responsibilities of senior command extended far beyond tactics.
Each portrait represents a different model of senior command.
Strategist.
Organizer.
Coalition commander.
Air-power architect.
Ground commander.
The repeated five-star emblem makes the program instantly recognizable.
It also emphasizes the rarity of the rank.
No modern stream of five-star promotions followed World War II.
The grade remains associated with exceptional national emergencies and the enormous commands of the mid-twentieth century.
The coins were issued to coincide with the 132nd anniversary of the Command and General Staff College.
That is an unusual anniversary number for a commemorative coin.
It reflects the timing specified by the authorizing law rather than the more familiar centennial or sesquicentennial model.
Many commemoratives exist because a round-number anniversary arrived.
The 5-Star Generals program instead centers on the institution and its famous alumni and instructors, with the 132nd anniversary providing the statutory timing.
The Treasury approved the final designs in September 2012 after consultation with the CGSC Foundation and review through the federal coin-design process.
The Mint publicly unveiled the six designs in October 2012.
Every denomination required its own front and back.
Although the reverses share Fort Leavenworth themes, they are not simply identical copies.
A military photograph can contain subtle shading and texture.
A coin must translate a face into shallow relief that survives striking.
When two portraits share one side, the challenge becomes even greater.
Marshall and Eisenhower Must Share the Field
The silver dollar has to balance two famous faces, names, required inscriptions and the five-star insignia.
The half dollar must do the same for Arnold and Bradley on a smaller diameter.
Although physically smaller than the silver dollar, its obverse carries only one portrait.
The design can focus attention directly on MacArthur.
The commemorative coins were produced at different U.S. Mint facilities.
The program therefore also reflects the specialized production roles of the modern Mint system.
A collector might buy one favorite general.
Another might assemble all three denominations.
Another might collect proof and uncirculated versions of each.
Still another might seek the original three-coin proof set.
Because it is clad rather than precious metal, the half dollar was the least expensive denomination when issued.
It offered a lower-cost way to participate in the program.
Silver commemorative dollars are a mainstay of modern U.S. commemorative collecting.
The denomination offers a large canvas for artwork while retaining precious-metal appeal.
Gold value makes the $5 coin inherently more expensive.
Its MacArthur portrait and lower authorized maximum distinguish it from the other denominations.
Commemorative coins do not automatically appreciate simply because they are limited.
Long-term market value depends on collector demand, actual mintage, precious-metal prices, condition and broader interest in the subject.
A listing that says “mintage limit 500,000” does not tell you how many silver dollars collectors actually purchased.
For modern commemoratives, final sales and production figures are more useful for scarcity analysis.
Demand is rarely divided evenly between finishes.
One version may end with a substantially lower final mintage.
Collectors studying scarcity should examine the actual issue breakdown rather than only the statutory ceiling.
Modern Mint packaging, certificates of authenticity and complete sets can matter to collectors.
They preserve the way the coin was originally marketed and sold.
Third-party grading services assign numeric grades and may identify proof cameo characteristics.
Some collectors prefer certified examples; others prefer original government packaging.
Neither approach changes the underlying historical significance.
They are legal-tender commemorative coins authorized by Congress and produced by the United States Mint.
That distinguishes them from military medals, challenge coins and privately issued tribute pieces.
The half dollar says HALF DOLLAR.
The silver coin says ONE DOLLAR.
The gold coin says FIVE DOLLARS.
But spending them at face value would ignore their collector and metal value.
They are technically money but practically collectibles.
That dual identity is one of the defining characteristics of modern U.S. commemorative coinage.
Five Men, Complicated Legacies
Commemorative coins necessarily compress history.
A portrait cannot explain strategic disagreements, political controversies, wartime costs or later debates over a commander's decisions.
Each of these generals has a historical record far more complicated than a heroic profile.
He was a celebrated commander and a deeply controversial public figure.
Any serious history of MacArthur must include both his achievements and his clashes with civilian leadership.
He was not only a general but a two-term president.
Interstate highways, Cold War policy, nuclear strategy and civil-rights enforcement all belong to his later history.
The Marshall Plan transformed his reputation from wartime Army chief to symbol of postwar European reconstruction.
His coin portrait therefore represents only one portion of an unusually broad public career.
The independent service created after World War II inherited much of the institutional development that occurred under his wartime leadership.
His role as the first Chairman of the Joint Chiefs placed him at the center of the emerging postwar national-security structure.
Taken together, the five men represent the rise of the United States from a relatively modest prewar military establishment to a global military power.
Fort Leavenworth provides the institutional thread.
Where do great commanders come from?
The obverses answer with famous individuals.
The reverses answer with an institution of education.
Heroic commemoration can make history seem purely personal.
The Leavenworth imagery reminds the collector that military effectiveness is also institutional.
Knowledge must be taught, practiced and transmitted.
March 21, 2013 was not the day the generals earned their stars.
It was not the day Congress authorized the program.
It was the documented date when collectors could begin purchasing the finished commemorative coins from the U.S. Mint.
Public Law 111-262 created the program.
Artists translated five lives and one institution into six coin designs.
The Mint struck gold, silver and clad versions.
On March 21, the public finally gained access to them.
On March 21, 2013, the United States Mint opened sales for the 5-Star Generals Commemorative Coin Program. Douglas MacArthur appeared on the $5 gold coin; George C. Marshall and Dwight D. Eisenhower shared the silver dollar; Henry “Hap” Arnold and Omar N. Bradley appeared on the clad half dollar. Yet the program's deeper theme was not simply five famous commanders. The Leavenworth Lamp and Fort Leavenworth crest on the reverses tied every coin to the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, emphasizing the institution that helped educate the officers who would eventually command American forces on a global scale.
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