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Coins that are undervalued and will increase in price #2

1971-S BU 40% Silver "IKE" Eisenhower Dollar

Joel's Crystal Ball foresees the value of the 1971-S BU 40% Silver "IKE" Eisenhower Dollar to soar to $10.00 by the end of the year. When you realize the "Historic" Value of this coin with Our President's Portrait on it this coin's potential is obvious. This coins was issued at $5.00 in 1971 when the Price of Gas was $0.35 a gallon. Today gas is upwards of $2.50 per gallon and rising. You also need to consider that this coin contains almost a ⅓ of an Ounce of Silver and that alone gives each 1971-S BU 40% Silver "IKE" Eisenhower Dollar a value that increase with the escalating Silver prices.

When the Treasury Department ordered a halt to the paying out of silver dollars in March of 1964, it looked like the final chapter had been written for these historic coins. Surprisingly, Congress voted that same year to coin 45 million additional silver dollars. Coming in the midst of a severe nationwide coin shortage, this seemingly frivolous employment of the Mint's machinery and manpower was terminated after just 316,076 pieces had been struck, and these coins were never issued. The Coinage Act of July 23, 1965 included a provision that no standard silver dollars were to be coined for a period of five years. The situation could then be re-evaluated at that time.

As the end of Congress' five-year ban on silver dollars approached, the idea was conceived for a circulating dollar coin to honor war hero and two-term President Dwight David Eisenhower, who had recently died. With silver long gone from the nation's dimes and quarters, and with ongoing debate over its discontinuance in the half dollar, there was never any serious consideration of including the precious metal in circulation strikes of the new Eisenhower dollar. There were those, however, who argued for a silver collectors' edition to be sold at a premium over face value.

Congressman Bob Casey of Texas introduced a bill into the House on October 29, 1969 calling for a circulating commemorative dollar to honor both Eisenhower and the Apollo XI space flight, mankind's first landing on the moon. More than a year of political wrangling was to follow before this bill was finally approved in a modified form. Along the way, the U.S. Mint prepared an alternative reverse design featuring a heraldic eagle that looked, in the words of noted numismatic author Q. David Bowers, like something one would find on a Mint pattern of the 1870s. Reportedly, one of the two proposed reverse designs (probably the Apollo XI image, given its implications for the world's future) originally featured an eagle whose expression the U.S. State Department feared other nations would interpret as hostile. Whether the eagle which ultimately did appear on the coin's reverse is a "friendly" bird is difficult to ascertain from its neutral expression.

Becoming law on December 31, 1970, the bill that created the Eisenhower dollar providing for a circulating coin made from the copper-nickel sandwich or "clad" composition then being used for dimes and quarters (and for half dollars beginning in 1971). It also permitted the coining of up to 150 million silver-clad coins for sale to collectors. These would be coined in the same composition lately used for halves dated 1965-70, two outer layers that were 80% silver and 20% copper bonded to an inner core that was approximately 21% silver and 79% copper. This created an overall mix that was 40% silver, with the balance being copper. A controversial amendment to this bill provided that a portion of the profits from the sale of these collector coins would be donated to Eisenhower College, a private institution in Seneca Falls, New York which ultimately folded despite receiving some $9 million dollars from this source.

As Mint Director Mary Brooks wanted the coins produced quickly, there was no time for a public design competition. Chief Engraver Frank Gasparro was directed to prepare the models in as little time as necessary. Anticipating this coinage, Gasparro had already begun work; his galvano for the obverse bore the date 1970, even though the first Ike dollars were dated 1971. His design portrays on the obverse a bare-headed, left-facing profile bust of the late president. Arranged in an arc above him is the legend LIBERTY, while the motto IN GOD WE TRUST appears in two lines below Eisenhower's chin. The date is at bottom, with the mintmark (if any) above it and to the right. Gasparro's initials FG are on the truncation of the bust. The reverse depicts the American eagle, an olive branch of peace in its talons, descending onto the moon. The distant Earth is in the field above and to the left. The motto E PLURIBUS UNUM is centered above the eagle, and the legend UNITED STATES OF AMERICA is arranged in an arc around the upper periphery. The value ONE Dollar is superimposed on the moon's surface along the lower periphery. An arc of small stars surrounds the eagle, Earth and the motto. The initials FG appear below the eagle's tail.

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