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CCAC Picks 2009 First Spouse Designs
 | By Numismatic News
May 01, 2008 |
Designs for 2009 First Spouse gold coins and bronze medals were considered at the Citizen Coin Advisory Committee meeting April 22.
Images of the First Spouse coin designs viewed at the meeting can be seen on Page 23, identified by codes used by the committee.
For the Anna Harrison coin, CCAC preferred designs AH-O-02 for the obverse and AH-R-02 for the reverse. First Lady Harrison was a supporter of education and an avid reader, and the reverse design reflects these attributes.
The committee selected LT-O-04 and LT-R-03 for the Letitia Tyler coin. She suffered ill health and spent most of her time on the family's plantation caring for their eight children. She died in 1842, about a year and a half into her husband's Presidency.
President John Tyler wed again while in office, in 1844, marrying a woman named Julia Gardiner. For the Julia Tyler coin, the CCAC singled out designs JT-O-03 and JT-R-01. The reverse design shows President Tyler handing the First Lady the gold pen he used to sign papers annexing Texas to the United States, an action she had helped achieve.
Sarah Polk designs SP-O-05 and SP-R-01 were preferred, the reverse showing her working as private secretary to President Polk in the White House.
Designs featuring Margaret Taylor that CCAC selected were MT-O-01 and MT-R-01. She spent much of her life moving with her military husband. The reverse design chosen highlights her care for wounded soldiers during the Seminole War.
The medal designs are not shown here for space reasons. They all correspond to the coin designs shown. Removed from the medal versions are denominations, metal content information and text such as "2009," "E Pluribus Unum" and "In God We Trust." Removal of these items allows for the central design elements on the reverses to be enlarged for the medals.
At the meeting, CCAC also reviewed an intended design theme proposed for a 2009 Native American dollar. Highlighted in this theme were agriculture; agricultural practices such as crop rotation, round cropping, hybridizations, irrigation and other techniques still in use today; and Three Sisters symbiotic agriculture, which involves increasing productivity by planting corn, climbing beans and squash in the same plot.
CCAC's Web site is at www.ccac.gov.
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