Michelle writes: Who were the only two Americans to appear on a U.S. coin who were not presidents?
It was public policy not to put portraits of real people on U.S. coins. That ended with the Columbian Exposition half dollar in 1892 which featured Christopher Columbus. The first American to appear on a U.S. coin was Abraham Lincoln, on the cent in 1909. As far as Americans that were never elected president of the United States that also appear on U.S.coins, there are many.
Here are a few:
- Susan B. Anthony dollar (1979-1999)
- Benjamin Franklin graced the half dollar from 1948-63
- William Wyatt Bibb, first governor of Alabama and T.E. Kelly – on the Alabama Centennial half dollar (1921)
- General McClellan and Lee on the Battle of Antietam half dollar (1937)
- Daniel Boone on the 1934-38 Daniel Boone Bicentennial half dollar
- P.T. Barnum on the Bridgeport half dollar (1936)
- George Washington Carver and Booker T. Washington on the 1951 Carver-Washington half dollar
- Stephen Foster on the Cincinnati Music Center half dollar (1936)
- Moses Cleveland on the Cleveland Great Lakes Exposition half dollar
- Captain James Cook on the Hawaiian Sesquicentennial half dollar of 1928
- Senator Carter Glass, former Secretary of the Treasury on the Lynchburg Virginia Sesquicentennial half dollar
- Senator Joseph T. Robinson on the Arkansas Centennial half dollar (1936)
- Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee on the Stone Mountain Memorial half dollar (1925)
- Dr. John McLoughlin on the Fort Vancouver Centennial half dollar (1925)
- Lewis and Clark dollar (1904)
