Freedom Tower Silver Dollar
Encyclopedia
| Freedom Tower Silver Dollar | |
| Value: | No official value Face value 1.00 U.S. dollars United States dollar The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies.... |
| Mass: | unknown |
| Diameter: | 39 mm |
| Thickness: | unknown |
| Edge: | reeded |
| Composition: | Bronze base (reported), 0.0001 in (2.5 µm) silver clad |
| Obverse | |
| Design: | Freedom Tower Freedom Tower One World Trade Center , more simply known as 1 WTC and formerly known as the Freedom Tower, is the lead building of the new World Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan in New York City... in New York City New York City New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and... skyline |
| Designer: | Daniel Carr ("DC" inscription) |
| Design Date: | 2004? |
| Reverse | |
| Design: | World Trade Center World Trade Center The original World Trade Center was a complex with seven buildings featuring landmark twin towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The complex opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks. The site is currently being rebuilt with five new... in New York City New York City New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and... skyline |
| Designer: | Daniel Carr ("DC" inscription) |
| Design Date: | 2004? |
The Freedom Tower
Freedom Tower
One World Trade Center , more simply known as 1 WTC and formerly known as the Freedom Tower, is the lead building of the new World Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan in New York City...
Silver Dollar is a "one dollar" coin minted under license of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) in 2004. Despite vague statements in advertisements, it is not issued by the United States Mint
United States Mint
The United States Mint primarily produces circulating coinage for the United States to conduct its trade and commerce. The Mint was created by Congress with the Coinage Act of 1792, and placed within the Department of State...
and is not considered legal tender
Legal tender
Legal tender is a medium of payment allowed by law or recognized by a legal system to be valid for meeting a financial obligation. Paper currency is a common form of legal tender in many countries....
. The CNMI receives royalty fees from proceeds of the sale of the coin. The coin is actually minted by SoftSky, a Wyoming
Wyoming
Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...
commemorative coin
Commemorative coin
Commemorative coins are coins that were issued to commemorate some particular event or issue. Most world commemorative coins were issued from the 1960s onward, although there are numerous examples of commemorative coins of earlier date. Such coins have a distinct design with reference to the...
maker.
Description
The obverse of the coin features a rendered image of the original design proposal for the Freedom Tower by Daniel LibeskindDaniel Libeskind
Daniel Libeskind, is an American architect, artist, and set designer of Polish-Jewish descent. Libeskind founded Studio Daniel Libeskind in 1989 with his wife, Nina, and is its principal design architect...
that was to be built on the former site of the World Trade Center
World Trade Center
The original World Trade Center was a complex with seven buildings featuring landmark twin towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The complex opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks. The site is currently being rebuilt with five new...
in New York. Also on the obverse are the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
national motto "In God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
We Trust" and the words "Freedom Tower, July 4, 2004." The reverse features an image of the former World Trade Center and the words "We Will Never Forget", along with a small symbol of a star on a stone pillar within a circle. This latter unidentified icon is in fact the coat of arms
Coat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...
of the Northern Mariana Islands.
Legality
The distributor of the coin, National Collector's MintNational Collector's Mint
National Collector's Mint, Inc. is a company based in New York that sells collectible coins, privately produces commemoratives and contracts the minting of non-circulating legal tender coins under the auspices of foreign nations.-Products:...
, advertises the item as "legally authorized government issue" and marks the coin with the valuation of "One Dollar
Dollar
The dollar is the name of the official currency of many countries, including Australia, Belize, Canada, Ecuador, El Salvador, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan, and the United States.-Etymology:...
". This is seen as being a deliberate attempt to mislead American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
consumers into believing it is a legal tender coin produced by the United States Mint
United States Mint
The United States Mint primarily produces circulating coinage for the United States to conduct its trade and commerce. The Mint was created by Congress with the Coinage Act of 1792, and placed within the Department of State...
and is worth one U.S. dollar.
In reaction to advertising for this product, the U.S. Mint, as well as the attorneys general
Attorney General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general, or attorney-general, is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions he or she may also have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions.The term is used to refer to any person...
of various U.S. states, released a statement that the coin is not U.S. government issue. Furthermore, since the Northern Mariana Islands is a United States Commonwealth, it cannot mint its own legal tender
Legal tender
Legal tender is a medium of payment allowed by law or recognized by a legal system to be valid for meeting a financial obligation. Paper currency is a common form of legal tender in many countries....
currency (it uses regular American money).
The distributors also purport that the coins have been struck using silver
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
recovered from a vault in the rubble of the World Trade Center. The validity of this claim has not been confirmed. Distributors warn that the minting
Mint (coin)
A mint is an industrial facility which manufactures coins for currency.The history of mints correlates closely with the history of coins. One difference is that the history of the mint is usually closely tied to the political situation of an era...
of the coin will cease once the quantity of recovered silver has been exhausted, and have therefore placed a limit on the number of coins that can be ordered per person. The coins are not solid silver, but are silver clad
Cladding (metalworking)
Cladding is the bonding together of dissimilar metals. It is distinct from welding or gluing as a method to fasten the metals together. Cladding is often achieved by extruding two metals through a die as well as pressing or rolling sheets together under high pressure.The United States Mint uses...
(0.0001 inch (2.5 micrometre
Micrometre
A micrometer , is by definition 1×10-6 of a meter .In plain English, it means one-millionth of a meter . Its unit symbol in the International System of Units is μm...
) layer). Actual silver content is 45 mg, or 0.00145 troy oz.
The territorial government of the CNMI has made money from commissioning commemorative, non-tender coins through SoftSky and National Collector's Mint in the past, but does not claim the right to commission legal tender coinage. Some past coins issued by SoftSky, such as the 1933 Gold Double Eagle
1933 Double Eagle
The 1933 double eagle currently holds the record for the highest price paid at auction for a single U.S. coin when it was purchased for US$7.59 million...
coin, have also incurred marketing controversy.
In October 2004 the attorney general
Attorney General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general, or attorney-general, is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions he or she may also have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions.The term is used to refer to any person...
of New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, Eliot Spitzer
Eliot Spitzer
Eliot Laurence Spitzer is an American lawyer, former Democratic Party politician, and political commentator. He was the co-host of In the Arena, a talk-show and punditry forum broadcast on CNN until CNN cancelled his show in July of 2011...
, obtained a court order against National Collectors Mint (a Port Chester, New York
Port Chester, New York
Port Chester is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States. The village is part of the town of Rye. As of the 2010 census, Port Chester had a population of 28,967...
company) to halt sales of the "Freedom Tower Silver Dollar" coin, citing it as fraudulently advertised. Spitzer also alleged that the company's sales contacts had asserted that the coin is legal tender. On October 13, 2004, Spitzer obtained a temporary order halting the company from advertising or selling the coin. On November 9, State Supreme Court Justice
New York Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the trial-level court of general jurisdiction in thestate court system of New York, United States. There is a supreme court in each of New York State's 62 counties, although some smaller counties share judges with neighboring counties...
Joseph R. Cannizzaro ruled that the company had engaged in deceptive and fraudulent marketing practices, and ordered the company to terminate its misleading advertising of the coin.
An investigation as to the silver content and the origin of the silver in the coins was started. The attorney general's office easily determined that the coin was only silver clad, but as of 2005 the veracity of the claim that this silver came from a World Trade Center bank vault had not been determined.
As a result of the controversy and legal action over the Freedom Tower coin, CNMI governor Juan N. Babauta
Juan N. Babauta
Juan Nekai Babauta is a Northern Mariana Islander politician. Babauta served as the sixth elected Governor of the United States Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands for one term from January 14, 2002 until January 9, 2006....
suspended the SoftSky contract on November 13, 2004. On December 2, Babauta ended the contract. Before this course of events, the CNMI government made about $160,000 off the deal.
Other groups have also released silver Freedom Tower coins, but not with a denominational value or advertised as government issue.
The CNMI coin was named "Stupid Investment of the Week" by CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
MarketWatch on September 24, 2004.
2005 Freedom Tower Dollar
In 2005, a similar coin to the CNMI Freedom Tower coin was sold, with similar design and the same claim of being made from silver "reclaimed" from the World Trade Center, but bearing the name of the Cook IslandsCook Islands
The Cook Islands is a self-governing parliamentary democracy in the South Pacific Ocean in free association with New Zealand...
instead of the CNMI. The Cook Islands are a self-governing democracy, and do mint their own currency (at par with the New Zealand dollar
New Zealand dollar
The New Zealand dollar is the currency of New Zealand. It also circulates in the Cook Islands , Niue, Tokelau, and the Pitcairn Islands. It is divided into 100 cents....
), though this coin is sold as a "non-circulating legal tender" coin.
2001-2006 World Trade Center Gold and Silver Clad Commemorative
As of 2006, the National Collectors Mint was offering what is variously described as 2001-2006 World Trade Center Gold and Silver Clad Commemorative, 2001-2006 World Trade Center Commemorative, and 5th Anniversary World Trade Center Commemorative. It is advertised as a "non-monetary issue" that "will never be released for circulation."This coin is a two piece set of a gold coin with a detachable silver inset of the World Trade Center complex and claims to contain "15 mg. of 24 KT gold and 15 mg. of .999 Pure silver clad," and also continued to claim that the silver was found in a bank vault buried under the rubble of Ground Zero. For comparison, a U.S. dollar coin is 8.1 g and a dime
Dime (United States coin)
The dime is a coin 10 cents, one tenth of a United States dollar, labeled formally as "one dime". The denomination was first authorized by the Coinage Act of 1792. The dime is the smallest in diameter and is the thinnest of all U.S...
is 2.268 g, meaning that the precious metal content of the commemorative coin is likely between 0.4% and 1.3% of the total mass.
It was discovered that the silver analyzed was, indeed, not silver, and was only worth about 32 cents.
The company claims that "$5 of every 2001-2006 World Trade Center Commemorative order is donated to official 9/11 family charities and memorials."
External links
- 2001-2006 World Trade Center Gold and Silver Clad Commemorative (commercial)
- National Collectors Mint - Freedom Tower Silver Dollar (commercial)
- U.S. Mint press release on the Freedom Tower Silver Dollar
- Court Order Halts Sales of 'Freedom Tower Silver Dollars', New York State Attorney General's Office, October 13, 2004
- Court Finds World Trade Center 'Freedom Tower Silver Dollar' Ads Deceptive, New York State Attorney General's Office, November 9, 2004
- Daniel Carr resume