Gold Commemoratives

In addition to the Silver Classic Commemorative coins series, there are 13 US Gold Commemorative coins that also comprise the commemorative series. The first coins were issued in 1903 for the St. Louis International Exposition. Two $1.00 Gold coins were issued for that exposition, one bearing the obverse portrait of just-assassinated President William McKinley and the other bearing Thomas Jefferson on the obverse.

A year later, in 1904, two additional gold commemorative dollars were issued for the Lewis & Clark Exposition. Both issues had Lewis on one side and Clark on the other, but the coins were dated either 1904 or 1905.

The 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition was the subject of a $1.00 Gold coin, a $2.50 Gold coin, and two $50 Gold coins – one round in shape and one Octagonal. These are the two rarest gold coins in the entire commemorative coin series.

In 1916 and in 1917, William McKinley was also honored by a coin struck for his benefit. The funds raised from the sale of these coins were used to build a memorial to him in Niles, Ohio. In 1922, for the Centennial of the birth of President Ulysses s Grant, two one dollar gold coins were struck and just as with the Grant silver Half Dollars, there were two varieties – one with a star and one without a star.

In 1926 at the Sesquicentennial of American Independence a $2.50 Gold coin was struck and sold at the Exposition and through local banks in Pennsylvania.