1986 us liberty coins us silver dollar and half dollar

Beginning in 1982 plans were made to do the necessary work as well as to restore the vacant buildings on nearby Ellis Island, which had been used to process the immigration of millions of Europeans and others who sailed past Lady Liberty, some of whom may have known the concluding words to Emma Lazarus's poem, The New Colossus: 'Give me your tired, your poor Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free The wretched refuse of your teeming shore Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me I lift my lamp beside the golden door!' In 1924 it was designated as a national monument.īy the early 1980s it was realized that the statue was in serious need of restoration. Erection work commenced on Bedloe's Island in New York Harbor and was completed by October 28, 1886, when the Statue of Liberty was dedicated by President Grover Cleveland. In 1884 the statue was completed in Paris, after which it was dismantled and shipped to the United States in 214 numbered crates. This element of the statue proved to be a sufficient attraction that it stayed in America drawing visitors until its return to France four years later. However, by that time only a small part of the work had been completed, and Bartholdi had to be content with exhibiting just the hand and torch of Miss Liberty at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia. Since that time it has been America's most visible symbol of freedom.Ĭonceived by Bartholdi in 1865, the statue was planned to be ready for the 1776-1876 centennial anniversary of the United States. The statue, officially known as Liberty Enlightening the World, was the work of French sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi and had been presented to the United States by the government of France. The 100th anniversary of the dedication of the Statue of Liberty in New York City Harbor in 1886 furnished the occasion for the issuance of commemorative coins in 1986.

Reprinted with permission from Commemorative Coins of the United States, A Complete Encylcopedia.

1986 us liberty coins us silver dollar and half dollar