2019 $1 American Innovation Reverse Proof Coin - Georgia

The United States Mint American Innovation $1 Coin Program is a multi-year series to honor innovation and innovators with $1 coins from each State, District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, U.S. Virgin Islands, and Northern Mariana Islands.

The United States Mint is proud to celebrate innovation and honor the spirit of America with the 2019 American Innovation $1 Reverse Proof Coin from the State of Georgia— the fourth released in 2019. In the early 1730’s, following the founding of the Georgia Colony, James Oglethorpe established what is considered the first agricultural experimental garden in America. Known as the Trustees’ Garden, this 10-acre plot of land in Savannah reflected the scientific and commercial aspirations of the trustees and their backers in England. The trustees hoped to grow grapes for wine production and mulberry trees to feed silk worms essential for silk production. But they, also imported plants from around the world to determine the best crops for the Georgia climate.

The trustees initially believed the climate to be subtropical, and botanists attempted to grow flax, hemp, indigo, olives, capers, and oranges, among others. Because of the temperature fluctuations, however, many of these failed, but the garden had two notable successes: the peach tree and the cotton plant. It was from the Trustees’ Garden that cotton was spread throughout Georgia and across the South. Peach trees were also distributed from the garden, and the peach remains Georgia’s signature crop.

The reverse design depicts a hand planting seeds in the inscription “TRUSTEES’ GARDEN,” from which grows a variety of species representing the variety of plants grown in the garden: an orange tree seedling, sassafras, grapes, white mulberry, flax, peaches, olive, and a young shoot too small to be identified. The additional inscriptions are “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA” and “GEORGIA.”

The obverse design features a dramatic representation of the Statue of Liberty in profile with the inscriptions “IN GOD WE TRUST” and “$1.” The obverse also includes a privy mark of a stylized gear, representing industry and innovation.

The edge-incused inscriptions are “2019,” “S” mint mark, and “E PLURIBUS UNUM.”