1972 Eisenhower Dollars 1971-1978 MS64

History

Congress authorized the Eisenhower dollar in the Bank Holding Company Act Amendments of 1970, Public Law 91-607, enacted December 31, 1970 at 84 Stat. 1760 and signed by President Richard Nixon, who had served as Eisenhower's vice president. Two pressures came together behind the coin: Eisenhower's death in March 1969, and the gaming industry's need for a large dollar to replace the silver dollars it had been feeding into slot machines. Mint Director Mary Brooks pushed for a silver coin, but Congress specified copper-nickel clad for circulation and authorized silver-clad versions for sale to collectors. Chief Engraver Frank Gasparro began the reverse in October 1969 under an amendment from Representative Bob Casey of Texas requiring a design symbolic of the Apollo 11 flight, and 1972 was the second year of the series.

Details

Gasparro designed the obverse and adapted the reverse from the Apollo 11 mission insignia drawn by astronaut Michael Collins. The Denver coins are copper-nickel clad, with outer layers of 75 percent copper and 25 percent nickel bonded to a pure copper core, giving an overall composition of 91.67 percent copper and 8.33 percent nickel. Statutory standards for the clad dollar put the weight at 22.68 grams and the diameter at 38.1 mm, with a thickness of 2.58 mm and a reeded edge. Denver struck 92,548,511 pieces; the 1972 silver-clad dollars came from San Francisco, so the 1972-D exists in clad only.

Features

The obverse carries a left-facing portrait of Dwight D. Eisenhower with LIBERTY arcing above the head and the date below, both concentric with the flat rim, and IN GOD WE TRUST in the left field. Gasparro's FG initials appear on the truncation of the neck, and the D mint mark sits beneath the bust. The reverse shows a bald eagle with outstretched wings descending onto the cratered lunar surface, an olive branch in both claws, with UNITED STATES OF AMERICA inside the upper rim, E PLURIBUS UNUM in two lines above the eagle beneath a field of stars, a small Earth floating above and to the left, and ONE DOLLAR at the bottom. Gasparro's initials also appear on the reverse, between the eagle's tail and the tip of the olive branch. Title 31 U.S. Code section 324 required an eagle on coins of a quarter dollar and above, a requirement the lunar module Eagle satisfied, and Brooks asked Gasparro to draw what he called a peaceful, pleasant-looking bird.

Notable facts

• The 1972-D is common in circulated and low mint-state grades and becomes scarce only at MS66 and above, where it ranks among the harder Denver-mint Eisenhower dollars to find.
• An MS67+ example brought $13,200 at auction on July 23, 2023.
• The Mint considered an Apollo 11 reverse fitting for Eisenhower because the American space program began during his administration.
• The 1972 Type 2 reverse, struck accidentally from a proof reverse die and known from a single die, is a Philadelphia issue without a mint mark; the Denver coins are catalogued as Type 1.
• Circulation dies of the period typically produced around 100,000 coins each.
• The Eisenhower dollar saw limited use in day-to-day commerce, which is why so many survived in uncirculated condition.