Commemorative coins honouring abolitionist Harriet Tubman were distributed by the US Mint on Thursday.
To mark the bicentennial of her birth, there are $5 gold coins, $1 silver coins, and half-dollar coins. According to the agency, this is the first time the US Mint has honoured Tubman with coins.
Ventris Gibson, the first Black director of the US Mint, said, “We all owe Harriet Tubman a huge debt of gratitude because I, and so many others, would not be where we would not be now if it weren’t for her bravery, her love of freedom for her people, and her devotion to our nation.”
“The Harriet Tubman coins are genuinely magnificent pieces of art, and we at the Mint like to think of coins as little canvases of art.”
Ventris went on, “These coins represent her spirit, her tenacity, her ceaseless efforts, and her desire for everyone to be free.”
The Harriet Tubman Bicentennial Commemorative Coin Act was signed into law by President Joe Biden in August 2022, and it mandates that the US Mint produce the coins.
Tubman, who was born into slavery in Maryland’s Dorchester County, managed to flee to Pennsylvania in 1849. As a “conductor” on the Underground Railroad, a covert system of passageways and safe havens for enslaved Africans attempting to escape to freedom, she assisted several enslaved Africans in escaping to Maryland and other states. She worked for the US Army as a chef, nurse, scout, spy, and scout during the Civil War. Additionally, Tubman participated in the women’s suffrage campaign in her final years.
According to Gibson, each coin’s design captures a different era in Tubman’s life and her abolitionist endeavours.
While Tubman is portrayed on the half dollar as a spy and Union medic during the Civil War, the silver dollar design highlights Tubman’s period as an Underground Railroad ‘conductor’.
According to a description on the Mint’s website, the $5 gold coin features an elder Tubman “gazing confidently into the distance and towards the future” and is engraved with Tubman’s key principles, like as freedom and faith.
According to Gibson, the US Mint created the coins in association with the Harriet Tubman Home and the National Underground Railroad Freedom Centre.
After earlier attempts to have Tubman replace President Andrew Jackson on the $20 note failed, some politicians have resumed their drive, which coincided with the unveiling of the Tubman coins.
Ohio Democratic Representative Joyce Beatty introduced the “Woman on the Twenty Act of 2023” in June. If approved, it would mandate that all US $20 notes issued after December 31, 2026, “feature a portrait of Harriet Tubman on the front face of the note.”
Previously, the Biden administration declared that it was “exploring ways to speed up” the $20 note that featured Tubman.
Tubman’s great-great-great-grandniece, Ernestine “Tina” Martin Wyatt, that the coins commemorating her aunt are “beautiful” and that the US Mint is doing a tremendous job of remembering her legacy. However, according to Wyatt, having her aunt’s likeness on the $20 note would be more significant and represent the development of the United States as a nation.
The $20 note, according to Wyatt, “represents something greater about who she was and what she gave to the United States,” even though the coins are amazing. “We must be mindful of the symbols we choose to represent true democracy in this nation, as she is a symbol of it.”
“A twenty dollar note is something you see and exchange frequently. Since symbolism in this country originated with one dollar bill, that is where the symbolism truly comes into play, the speaker remarked.
The US Treasury Department and the White House have been contacted with comments.
The new coins are available for purchase online and at US Mint locations in Philadelphia, Denver, and Washington, DC. According to a statement on the US Mint website, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Centre and the Harriet Tubman Home will receive funds from the coin sales.
