My Eisenhower Dollars
Private
Updated:
5/30/2026
Views: 615
Official portraits of Presidents rarely capture much of the man's character, in my opinion. I always thought Norman Rockwell was a little better at catching a person's essence, so that's why I selected this portrait to grace this set. Ike's smile seems to me that he knows something that he just isn't going to tell us, and he finds that amusing; or perhaps he just four putted on a par 3 hole someplace and that fact he's keeping to himself.
I lived in Manhattan, Kansas for a decade and just west on I-70 was Abilene, Ike's home and where his Library is. I guess, mostly out of fond memories of Kansas I started this set. Albeit I don't think this coin has much artistic merit, and these are not all silver coins like most of the other dollar series. In any event this set is complete, and will I upgrade it when the opportunty arises, mostly out of respect for a Kansas gentleman.
This dollar coin was the first since the Peace Dollar series ended in 1935. The coin was produced in silver at the San Francisco mint, and nickel-copper clad elsewhere. This was a short-lived series starting in 1971 and ending in 1978, only seven years. Ike served as President for eight years from 1952 to 1960. The Peace dollar, on the other hand, went from 1921 to 1928, then 1934 and 1935 for a total of nine years. The Morgan dollar went from 1878 to 1904 and then 1921 for a total of twenty-seven years.
The 1950s were an eventful decade and these dollar coins were struck twenty years after Ike served as President. This seems to me an excellent manner in which to memorialize the Presidency of a man whose image graces this coin.
Again, as with the Franklin half dollar, the Eisenhower dollar is personified. The coin bears the image of a real person of significance to our country and his time. Personification raises the conversation about the coin to a different level than what the prior Silver Dollars and most of our other coins enjoyed. When you put the image of a real person on the coin, that coin is a monument to the person as well as legal tender.
Eisenhower is unique among Presidents and American leaders in my lifetime. I doubt a case could be made that he was one of our best Presidents, but he did what needed done, and in the best interests of us all, as he saw that interest. Afterall, that's what we should expect of our President.
His extra marital affair in England catching the attention the Army Chief of Staff (absolutely no nonsense George C. Marshall), his following in his brother Milton's footsteps for a couple of years and his Presidency makes for an extremely interesting character. One, that no novelist, even to the great ones, could conjure up. The Rockwell image of him is how I think of him, I couldn't replicate that painting, but Ike was a man -- in every sense, he had his fobiles, but there was substance, both as a military man and as a President. I think that a walk through his library (which I did more than once) corroborates he did great things, but was himself a human being much like the rest of us, and with humble Kansan roots deep in those Flint Hills.
The coin is important too. It is part of the trappings we should bestow on those like Ike. It is a memorialization of a great military career, and a Presidency that existed in some pretty heady times, and that should be remembered. Albeit, the esthetics of this coin are close to those of which Teddy Roosevelt complained, the coin itself is interesting because of its metallurgy and it's design variations. In other words, I think this coin is a perfect metaphor for our 34th President.
Eisenhower was also an author. He was the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe during World War II and spent most of his time keeping the allies all headed in the same direction. His book "Crusade in Europe," New York: Doubleday, 1948 is a first person account of the war and an interesting read.
This set began on May 19, 2024 and will occasionally receive resources and attention, just because . . . (like my kids used to say)
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