The Jumbo-Sized Eisenhower Silver Dollar
Greatness is of course the imbued trait of this coin as it was minted from 1971 to 1978 to honor the 34th President of the United States, also a five-star general whose fabled World War II exploits have been immortalized in many books, both civilian and military tomes at that.Other coins have been minted in honor of President Eisenhower, and which are totally different from the Eisenhower Silver Dollar. A $1 Eisenhower commemorative coin was minted in 1990 and another will come out in 2015 under the Presidential $1 Coin Program.
The Eisenhower Silver Dollar bears the design of Frank Gasparro who likewise rendered the coin"s reverse side with the Apollo 11 insignia, an icon to mark the moon landing in 1969. That was also the year that President Eisenhower also died, so this silver dollar has some sort of an alpha-omega interpretation.
The Eisenhower Silver Dollar did not see much circulation owing perhaps to its cumbersome size. However, it was minted again to mark the US bicentennial in 1976. This commemorative coin was designed by Dennis Williams who added the Liberty Bell to the reverse while maintaining the Apollo 11 tribute with the image of the moon. This one maintained the original size of 38.1 mm, however.
Significantly, the Eisenhower dollar was the last mintage to have base metal content proportionate to lower coin denominations. Its cupronickel content for instance is ten times that of the Roosevelt dime, four times that of the Washington quarter, and twice of the Kennedy half dollar.