Hundreds Attend James A Garfield Presidential $1 Coin Launch Thursday

In what was called a unique and once-in-a-lifetime event, more than 250 people gathered on a chilly Thursday morning at the James A. Garfield National Historic Site to observe the James A. Garfield Presidential $1 coin launch, which was recently produced and released into circulation by the U.S. Mint.

“This is really a unique and once-in-a-lifetime event,” said Todd Arrington, chief of interpretation and education at James A. Garfield National Historic Site in Mentor. “There is a lot of money floating around out there, but believe it or not they don’t have ceremonies like this very often. So this is really something very, very special and we’re very, very happy you are all here to share it with us today."

The official release of the new presidential $1 coin came just two days before the 180th birthday of Garfield who was born November 18, 1831 in a log cabin in Moreland Hills.

Garfield made a living as a lawyer, teacher and lay preacher and served as a brigadier general during the Civil War. After serving in the U.S. House of Representatives for 18 years, he ran for president in 1880. From his family home on Mentor Avenue, he conducted the first successful “front porch” national presidential campaign. Garfield’s speeches attracted thousands to the tiny village of Mentor, which had a population of just 540.

Unfortunately, Garfield’s presidency was short lived. He was assassinated serving only 200 days in office, the second shortest presidential tenure to that of William Henry Harrison. Garfield’s home is operated by the National Park Service as an historic site.

“I think Garfield himself would have been delighted with this coin, not because his face is stamped upon it --- he was free of that sort of vanity --- but because it’s silver, or allegedly silver, and not paper money,” said Allan Peskin, a Cleveland State University emeritus history professor. “To him, greenbacks were an abomination. They were, he said, ‘the printed lies of the government.’”

Peskin who wrote, Garfield, considered the definitive biography of the 20th president of the United States, presented the keynote address at the presidential coin launch cermony.

President Garfield’s great grandson Rudolph H. Garfield of Mentor also spoke. More than a dozen Garfield relatives from Ohio and from across the nation also attended the event.

“From my early childhood years and into the 1960s, I have personally known and cared greatly for each of the president’s five children, my grandfather, his sisters and brothers,” said Garfield. “Perhaps in their absentia and on their behalf, I can take the liberty of thanking you for being here today and welcoming you to the home in which they grew up. They, and their suddenly widowed mother Lucretia, would also be most grateful to the U.S. Mint and all those instrumental in producing this new coin in commemoration of the revered and their beloved father.”

Other state and federal dignitaries also spoke including Liberty Schindel, representing Republican U.S. Congressman Steven C. LaTourette; Caryn Candisky, representing Republican U.S.  Senator Rob Portman, and Max Blachman, representing Democatic U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown.

At the end of the presidential coin launch event, Garfield, along with Peskin and J. Marc Landry, acting associate director for manufacturing at the U.S. Mint, ceremoniously took a small metal bin containing hundreds of shiny gold-plated Garfield presidential coins and poured them on a table as spectators applauded.

Garfield’s presidential coins will be available at Cardinal Community Credit Union Friday.

To learn more about the James A. Garfield Presidential $1 coin, please visit the U.S. Mint website.