2011 Vicksburg National Military Park Quarter
The 2011 Vicksburg National Military Park Quarter will represent the fourth release of the quarter series for 2011 and the ninth release of the series overall. The selection of the site for the state of Mississippi was originally announced in September 2009, along with the register of sites for the entire coin series.
The Vicksburg Quarter features a surprising depiction of the U.S.S. Cairo. Rather than depicting a present day scene from the park or one of the monuments present, the striking image of an ironclad gunboat is shown as it would have been seen when it was used by the Union Navy during the Civil War. The image was designed by Thomas Cleveland and sculpted by Joseph Menna.
On the coin's obverse will be the portrait of George Washington that is used for all issues of the series. It was originally designed for the 1932 Washington Quarter, and used either in original or modified form for all circulating quarter dollars issued since.
The release date for the Vicksburg National Military Park Quarter will be August 29, 2011. The America the Beautiful Quarters are released at a rate of five new designs per year from 2010 to 2020, with a single design released in the final year of the series. The coins are available through circulation, within numismatic products offered by the US Mint, or as duplicated on a 5 ounce silver bullion coin.
About Vicksburg National Military Park
The Vicksburg National Military Park was established by Congress on February 21, 1899 to commemorative the siege and defense of Vicksburg. The park now includes 1,325 historic monuments and markers, 144 enplaced cannons, a restored Union gunboat, and 20 miles of reconstructed trenches. The park also includes the Vicksburg National Cemetery, which was established by Congress years earlier.
In the early wars of this country, it was often hard for the military to see that those who died in battle were given the honor and proper burial that they deserved. Especially in the Civil War, soldiers were usually hastily buried in the ground near the spot where they died. If it was possible, their fellow soldiers would try to mark the spot with stones or with wood that had been etched with their name.
In 1866, Congress agreed to declare one hundred and sixteen acres near Vicksburg Mississippi as a National Cemetery, and efforts got under way to exhume and recover the remains of those Union soldiers that had died in the Southeast during the Civil War.
Vicksburg is currently the largest National Cemetery in the country, and holds the remains of over 17,000 soldiers. Over seventy five percent of the graves at Vicksburg contain the remains of unidentified soldiers.
