1976-1996 American Bicentennial Commemorative Memento; Double Faced High Relief Coin American Made

1976. Presumed first pressing/minting thus. Coin/Medal. Plastic case, three inches long and 2.25 inches wide. RARE--extensive internet searching did not yield information on this or an image of this coin. Inside is a red, white and blue paper holder, 2,875 inches by 2.875 inches with a circle cut out for the coin. The coin is approximately 1.5 inches in diameter. One side shows the Stone Mountain Confederate Memorial and the other side has the outline of the State of Georgia. Around the outer edge it says Georgia 1776 Peach State. Within the outline of the state of Georgia are the names of the cities of Rome, Gainsville, Atlanta, Augusta, Macon, Columbus, Savannah and also Okefenokee Swamp. The material appears to be bronze. This item does not use the official Bicentennial logo and there was not licensed b the American Revolution Bicentennial Administration. The United States Bicentennial was a series of celebrations and observances during the mid-1970s that paid tribute to historical events leading up to the creation of the United States as an independent republic. The Bicentennial culminated on Sunday, July 4, 1976, with the 200th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence by the Founding Fathers in the Second Continental Congress. On December 11, 1973, and created the American Revolution Bicentennial Administration (ARBA), which was charged with encouraging and coordinating locally sponsored events. The Ford administration stressed the themes of renewal and rebirth based on a restoration of traditional values, giving a nostalgic and exclusive reading of the American past. The largest bas-relief sculpture in the world, the Confederate Memorial Carving depicts three Confederate leaders of the Civil War: President Jefferson Davis and Generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson (on their favorite horses, Blackjack, Traveler, and Little Sorrel, respectively). The sculpture was cut 42 feet deep into the mountain, measures 90 feet in height and 190 feet in width, and lies 400 feet above the ground. The project was greatly advanced by C. Helen Plane,[21] a charter member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) and first president and Honorary Life President of the Georgia State Division. After obtaining the approval of the Georgia UDC, she set up the UDC Stone Mountain Memorial Association in 1914, when she was 85 years old. She convinced Samuel Venable of the Venable Brothers Granite Company, owner of the mountain, to deed one side of the mountain for the project. She chose the sculptor Gutzon Borglum for the project and invited him to visit the mountain, she "would not shake his hand—he was, after all, a Yankee"). She met him at the Atlanta train station, took him to her family's summer home, Mont Rest, at the foot of the mountain, and introduced him to Samuel Venable. Borglum also enlisted Luigi Del Bianco, whom he would also involve in Mount Rushmore. Venable deeded the north face of the mountain to the UDC in 1916, on the condition that it complete a sizable Civil War monument in 12 years. Finances as well as technical problems slowed progress. The U.S. Mint issued a 1925 Commemorative silver U.S. half dollar, bearing the words "Stone Mountain", as a fundraiser for the monument. This issue, which required the approval of both the 1926 Congress and President Calvin Coolidge, was the largest issue of commemorative coins by the U.S. government up to that time. After a number of sculptors turned them down, Augustus Lukeman took up the work in 1925, with a different, smaller design. Fundraising was even more difficult after the public debate and name-calling, and work stopped in 1928. In 1941, segregationist Governor Eugene Talmadge formed the Stone Mountain Memorial Association (SMMA) to continue work on the memorial, but the project was delayed once again by the United States' entry into World War II (1941–45). In 1958, at the urging of Governor Marvin Griffin, the Georgia legislature approved a measure to purchase Stone Mountain at a price of $1,125,000. In 1963, Walker Hancock was selected to complete the carving, and work began in 1964. The carving was dedicated in a ceremony on May 9, 1970. The carving was completed by Roy Faulkner on March 3, 1972. Faulkner in 1985 opened the Stone Mountain Carving Museum on nearby Memorial Drive commemorating the carving's history. An extensive archival collection related to the project is now at Emory University, with the bulk of the materials dating from 1915 to 1930; the finding aid provides a history of the project, and an index of the papers contained in the collection. Four flags of the Confederacy are flown at the site The Stone Mountain Memorial Lawn "contains...thirteen terraces—one for each Confederate state.... Each terrace flies the flag that the state flew as member of the Confederacy." Condition: Very good.

Keywords: Bicentennial, American Revolution, Georgia, Stone Mountain, Confederate Memorial, Coin, Medal, Memento, Commemorative, Souvenir

[Book #90052]

Price: $125.00