Unique Statue of Liberty Rectangular Silver Coin

A gift of friendship from the people of France to the United States, the colossal neoclassical statue called “Liberty Enlightening the World,” stands in New York Harbor. Dedicated on October 28, 1886, the copper statue was designed by the French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi and built by Gustave Eiffel. When the American Committee for the Statue of Liberty ran out of funds to build the statue's pedestal in 1884, newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer came to the rescue. He urged the public to donate money through his newspaper New York World, and raised more than $100,000 in six months.

The statue is of a robed female figure representing Libertas, the Roman goddess, who bears a torch and a tabula ansata (a tablet evoking the law). The American Declaration of Independence and the date of July 4, 1776 are inscribed on her tablet. A broken chain lies at her feet. An icon of freedom and democracy, the statue has been welcoming sight to immigrants arriving from abroad for more than 130 years.