OCTOBER 13
1975•Bicentennial Eisenhower Dollar
2020•Final Heraldic-Eagle Silver Proof Released
The Bicentennial Eisenhower Dollar Enters Circulation
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On October 13, 1975, the United States Mint released the new 1776–1976 Bicentennial Eisenhower dollar into circulation, giving Americans their first opportunity to spend a dollar coin whose reverse combined two powerful national symbols: the Liberty Bell and the Moon.
The coin was part of an unprecedented temporary redesign of America’s quarter, half dollar, and dollar for the nation’s 200th anniversary. Instead of their normal reverses, the three denominations carried special Bicentennial designs selected through a nationwide competition.
The Eisenhower dollar’s winning reverse, created by Dennis R. Williams, placed the Liberty Bell against the Moon while preserving the familiar eagle-and-Earth symbolism of the Apollo era in a new form. The result linked the American Revolution of 1776 with the lunar achievement of 1969.
October 13, 1975
The Mint announced that the Bicentennial dollar would be released to the public through commercial banks beginning Monday, October 13.
Mint Director Mary Brooks described the coin as the first of the redesigned Bicentennial denominations to be released for general circulation.
The new quarter and half dollar would follow later.
For the dollar, October 13 was the moment the Bicentennial celebration moved from legislation, design competitions, and Mint production into Americans’ pockets.
One of the most unusual aspects of the Bicentennial coinage is that the new dollars were released before 1976.
The special coins did not carry a normal 1975 date.
Instead, Congress authorized the dual date 1776–1976.
That means a Bicentennial Eisenhower dollar bearing 1776–1976 may have been struck or released in 1975.
The dual date commemorated the span from the Declaration of Independence to the nation’s approaching 200th birthday rather than identifying a single production year.
There Are No 1975-Dated Eisenhower Dollars
The Bicentennial program created a striking gap in the date sequence.
No Eisenhower dollar bears the date 1975.
Production transitioned from 1974-dated coins to pieces bearing 1776–1976.
The same general situation applies to the Washington quarter and Kennedy half dollar: ordinary 1975 dates were omitted while the Mint accumulated large quantities of dual-dated Bicentennial coins.
For collectors, the missing 1975 date is an intentional consequence of the anniversary program, not a rarity waiting to be discovered.
As the United States approached its Bicentennial, Congress and the Treasury considered ways to commemorate the anniversary on circulating money.
The idea was unusually ambitious.
Rather than issue a separate commemorative coin that many Americans might never see, the government temporarily changed three everyday denominations.
The quarter, half dollar, and dollar would carry Bicentennial reverses and the dual date 1776–1976.
Millions of people would encounter the celebration through ordinary commerce.
President Richard Nixon signed the Bicentennial coin legislation on October 18, 1973.
The law authorized temporary reverse changes for the quarter dollar, half dollar, and dollar while retaining the existing obverse portraits.
George Washington remained on the quarter, John F. Kennedy on the half dollar, and Dwight D. Eisenhower on the dollar.
The legislation also permitted special collector versions containing silver.
The Treasury invited the public to submit designs for the three new reverses.
The response was enormous.
Nearly 1,000 designs were submitted.
A panel reviewed the entries, and the winning artists were announced in 1974.
Jack L. Ahr won for the quarter, Seth G. Huntington for the half dollar, and Dennis R. Williams for the dollar.
Each artist approached the Bicentennial theme differently.
Dennis R. Williams
Williams was a young art student when his design was selected.
His success is one of the more remarkable stories in modern U.S. coin design.
He was not a veteran Mint engraver or nationally famous sculptor.
Yet his Liberty Bell and Moon concept was chosen to appear on one of the nation’s largest circulating coins.
Mint Chief Engraver Frank Gasparro adapted the winning drawing for coinage production.
The Liberty Bell dominates the reverse.
Few American objects are more closely associated with the Revolutionary era and the ideals of independence.
The bell was originally cast for the Pennsylvania State House, now Independence Hall, in Philadelphia.
Its famous crack and later association with abolition and liberty transformed it into a national symbol far beyond its original governmental purpose.
For a Bicentennial coin, it provided an immediate visual link to 1776.
Behind the Liberty Bell appears the Moon.
The choice might initially seem strange on a coin commemorating the American Revolution.
But the Moon represented one of the greatest American accomplishments of the twentieth century.
Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin landed there on July 20, 1969.
By combining the bell and Moon, Williams connected the country’s founding era with a technological achievement almost two centuries later.
The design effectively compresses American history into two objects.
The Liberty Bell represents the revolutionary generation and the ideals associated with independence.
The Moon represents exploration, science, engineering, and the modern United States.
The coin asks the viewer to see the Apollo achievement as part of the same national story that began in the eighteenth century.
That conceptual leap is what makes the reverse so memorable.
The Eisenhower Obverse Remained
The obverse continued to use Frank Gasparro’s portrait of Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Eisenhower had served as Supreme Allied Commander in Europe during World War II and as the 34th president from 1953 to 1961.
He died in 1969.
Congress authorized a dollar bearing his likeness soon afterward, and the first Eisenhower dollars were produced in 1971.
The Bicentennial issue therefore modified a series that was only a few years old.
The continued use of Eisenhower’s portrait gave the Bicentennial reverse an additional historical connection.
NASA was established during Eisenhower’s presidency in 1958.
The space program that eventually placed astronauts on the Moon developed from foundations laid during his administration.
Thus, even though the Liberty Bell and Moon were created specifically for the Bicentennial, the lunar imagery remained compatible with the broader history represented by Eisenhower.
The Eisenhower dollar was a substantial coin.
It measured 38.1 millimeters in diameter and weighed 22.68 grams in its copper-nickel clad circulation form.
That made it essentially the same diameter as the classic Morgan and Peace silver dollars.
The large surface gave Williams’ reverse unusually generous space.
The Liberty Bell could dominate the design while the Moon remained clearly visible behind it.
The Bicentennial Eisenhower dollars released through banks were copper-nickel clad coins.
They consisted of outer copper-nickel layers bonded to a copper core.
Despite their silver-colored appearance and large dollar size, they contained no silver.
This composition had been used for circulating Eisenhower dollars since the denomination’s introduction.
The edge reveals the copper core as a characteristic brownish band between the outer layers.
Silver-Clad Collector Versions
The Bicentennial program also included special 40-percent-silver versions of the quarter, half dollar, and dollar.
These were produced at San Francisco for collectors and sold in special sets.
The silver-clad Eisenhower dollars therefore belong to the same Bicentennial design family but served a different market from the October 13 general-circulation release.
Distinguishing the circulation and collector issues is essential when discussing Bicentennial coinage.
Circulation-strike Bicentennial Eisenhower dollars were produced at Philadelphia and Denver.
Philadelphia pieces carried no mint mark.
Denver coins carried a D.
San Francisco produced proof and special silver-clad collector issues.
The multiple formats created a substantial collecting field within what might otherwise look like a single 1776–1976 dollar type.
Collectors quickly discover another layer of complexity.
Bicentennial Eisenhower dollars exist with two major reverse lettering varieties commonly called Type I and Type II.
The early Type I reverse has thicker, blockier lettering.
The later Type II uses thinner, more refined letters.
The design modification gives specialists a way to distinguish different production phases of the dual-dated dollar.
The dollars first released in 1975 used the Type I reverse.
Its lettering is bold and relatively heavy.
As production continued, the Mint refined the reverse hub and introduced the Type II style.
Because all the coins still carried the same 1776–1976 date, the lettering itself becomes evidence of the design’s production evolution.
This is a perfect example of why collectors look beyond the date.
The Bicentennial Eisenhower series also contains a celebrated rarity.
A unique 40-percent-silver proof dollar is known without the expected S mint mark.
The coin has fascinated specialists for decades because proof Bicentennial silver dollars should have been struck at San Francisco and marked accordingly.
Its existence demonstrates how even a mass-produced anniversary program can produce extraordinary anomalies.
Why Release the Dollar First?
The Mint accumulated Bicentennial coins before releasing them because officials wanted enough pieces available to prevent immediate shortages and hoarding from disrupting distribution.
The dollar was the first of the three redesigned denominations to enter general circulation.
The quarter and half dollar followed later in 1975.
By releasing enormous quantities over an extended period, the government hoped Americans would actually use the coins rather than treat every example as a scarce souvenir.
Americans nevertheless saved Bicentennial coins by the millions.
The unusual dual date and special reverses made them feel different from ordinary change.
Many families put examples aside as souvenirs of the national anniversary.
That widespread saving explains why circulated Bicentennial quarters and half dollars remain common decades later and why Eisenhower Bicentennial dollars are still frequently found in inherited collections.
The special design did not solve the fundamental problem facing the Eisenhower dollar.
Americans generally considered the coin too large and heavy for convenient everyday use.
It circulated in some specialized settings—most famously casinos—but never replaced the dollar bill in ordinary commerce.
The Bicentennial release gave the denomination tremendous visibility without creating lasting public acceptance.
Regular Eisenhower dollar production ended with coins dated 1978.
Congress then authorized the much smaller Susan B. Anthony dollar.
When Anthony dollars appeared in 1979, the traditional large-size circulating dollar format effectively ended.
The 1776–1976 Bicentennial Eisenhower therefore belongs near the end of a physical lineage stretching back to the large silver dollars of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
A Coin Americans Remember
Commercial success is not the only measure of a coin’s cultural impact.
The Bicentennial Eisenhower dollar is one of the most visually distinctive modern U.S. coins.
Even people who do not collect coins often recognize the dual date and Liberty Bell reverse.
Its large size, unusual imagery, and association with the national Bicentennial make it a common gateway coin—one that prompts someone to wonder whether the unusual dollar in a drawer might be special.
The 1975–1976 redesign demonstrated that circulating denominations could serve as large-scale historical commemoratives.
Decades later, the State Quarters, Westward Journey nickels, Presidential dollars, America the Beautiful quarters, and other rotating programs would make changing designs familiar.
In the mid-1970s, however, temporarily redesigning three major denominations at once was extraordinary.
The Bicentennial coins helped show how national history could be placed directly into everyday change.
October 13, 1975 marks the public circulation debut of the Bicentennial Eisenhower dollar.
Its date read 1776–1976 even though the calendar still said 1975.
Its obverse retained President Dwight D. Eisenhower, but Dennis R. Williams’ new reverse replaced the ordinary eagle design with a striking combination of the Liberty Bell and the Moon.
The coin linked the American Revolution to the space age, the eighteenth century to Apollo 11, and the nation’s founding to its approaching 200th anniversary.
For the United States Mint, it was the first circulation release of the three redesigned Bicentennial denominations. For collectors, it became one of the defining coins of the 1970s. And for millions of Americans, it was a pocket-sized announcement that the Bicentennial had truly begun.
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