Issued as the fourth of five 2020-dated releases of the US Mint’s America the Beautiful Five Ounce Silver Uncirculated Coin™ series will be the 2020 Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller America the Beautiful Silver Uncirculated Coin. Shown on the reverse of the coin will be a design emblematic of the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park located in the state of Vermont.
The US Mint will release the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller as the fifty-fourth coin of the America the Beautiful Uncirculated Coin series. The program debuted with five 2010-dated strikes and features five new releases annually until the last of fifty-six new coins is issued in 2021.
Each coin honors a different site of national interest with one chosen from each state, the District of Columbia and the five US territories. The order of release for the coins is dictated by the order in which the sites came under the direct control of the federal government.
This series was created by the US Mint as the numismatic versions of the America the Beautiful Silver Bullion Coins™. As such, both series feature the same basic specifications as well as designs.
These designs are actually originally created for a third US Mint series, the America the Beautiful Quarters® Program. Accordingly, the obverse of each America the Beautiful coin contains the same John Flanagan portrait of George Washington seen on circulating quarters since 1932, with minor variations.
Design candidates for the reverse of the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller Coins should be released by the United States Mint sometime in mid-2019. These candidates will be reviewed by several groups and individuals including the Commission of Fine Arts and the Citizen’s Coinage Advisory Committee before a final recommendation is made by the Director of the US Mint. Final selection is the responsibility of the Secretary of the Treasury who oversees the US Mint.
Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park
Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park is located in Woodstock, Vermont. It was officially established on August 26, 1992.
The site preserves the location where Frederick Billings created a progressive dairy farm and managed forest system. The forest was developed by purchasing land from area failing farms and planting trees, thus reforesting the location.
Before Billings, the area was owned by George Perkins Marsh who many consider to be America’s first environmentalist. After Billings, it was owned by Laurence and Mary French Rockefeller who deeded it to the federal government.
The National Park Service uses this paragraph to describe the historical park:
"Green Pastures and Green Mountains"
"Walk through one of Vermont’s most beautiful landscapes, under the shade of sugar maples and 400-year-old hemlocks, across covered bridges and alongside rambling stone walls. This is a landscape of loss, recovery, and conservation. This is a story of stewardship, of people taking care of places – sharing an enduring connection to land and a sense of hope for the future."