Coin of the Month

Cleveland Presidential $1 Coin

Bill here, covering the second Grover Cleveland Presidential $1 Coin.  Cleveland was not the first president who served two terms, but he was the only president who served two non-consecutive terms.  That is, he ran for the office three times but won only the first and the third time.  That's why two dollar coins bear his name.

Cleveland was re-elected in 1892, the year the Chicago World's Fair opened. To support the fair, Congress had the United States Mint create the first commemorative coin:  a silver half dollar honoring Christopher Columbus on the 400th anniversary of his landing in the New World.  A Queen Isabella coin soon followed.

During his second term, Cleveland dealt swiftly with several serious issues:

• For a border dispute in Venezuela, he forcefully led Great Britain to settle.
• For a railroad strike in Chicago where workers ignored a court injunction, he sent in federal troops.
• For a national financial depression (the Panic of 1893), he had the Sherman Silver Purchase Act repealed (which required the Treasury to buy silver every month) and replenished the dwindling gold supply.

Although the Sherman Silver Purchase Act was repealed, the national depression only got worse.  For this and other reasons, Cleveland became less and less popular and the Democratic party refused to nominate him for another term.  After leaving the White House, Cleveland retired to Princeton, New Jersey.  He died in 1908.

Find out more about Cleveland on the Grover Cleveland Presidential $1 Coin page and about his first term in last summer's Making Cents.

—Bill