The Lafayette dollar was an American silver coin issued to raise money for a statue of Lafayette, the French hero of the American Revolution. The statue was dedicated at the Paris World's Fair of 1900. President William McKinley chose Chicago businessman Ferdinand Peck as commissioner-general for the American exhibit at the Paris exposition, and Peck approved the monument for the exhibit. Designed by the Mint's Chief Engraver, Charles E. Barber, the coin features conjoined busts of George Washington and Lafayette on the obverse. The images are based on a sculpture of Washington by Jean-Antoine Houdon and a medal of Lafayette by François-Augustin Caunois. The reverse depicts an early sketch of the planned monument. All the coins were struck at the Philadelphia Mint on December 14, 1899, the centennial of Washington's death. They did not sell out, and 14,000 were later melted by the Treasury. The coins are valued from several hundred dollars to tens of thousands, depending on condition. The Lafayette dollar was the only U.S. silver dollar commemorative prior to 1983, and the first U.S. coin to depict an American citizen. (Full article...)
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