The 2020 Weir Farm America the Beautiful Silver Bullion Coin will mark the second strike of the US Mint’s America the Beautiful Silver Bullion Coin™ Program to appear in that year . The coin also number fifty-second out of fifty-six new strikes to appear as part of the program as a whole.
Located on the obverse (heads side) of this strike will be an image of the first President of the United States, George Washington. His image has appeared on the quarter dollars since 1932, and since this bullion series is issued as a companion to the America the Beautiful Quarters appearing at approximately the same time, it is placed on these coins as well.
Found on the reverse (tails side) will be an artistic representation of a portion of Weir Farm National Historic Site located in Connecticut. The final image for the coin will probably be unveiled only in early 2020 along with the designs for the other America the Beautiful strikes of that year. Design candidates, however, should be reviewed by the Citizen’s Coinage Advisory Committee and the Commission of Fine Arts the previous year giving the public its first glimpse of what the Weir Farm coin might look like.
The Mint will only sell the bullion coins to its network of authorized purchasers. The network will then resell them to coin dealers and individuals for a small premium over the spot price of the silver contained within them.
Each coin in the bullion series will be struck from five ounces of .999 fine silver to a diameter of three inches. The America’s Beautiful National Parks Quarter Dollar Coin Act of 2008 which authorized these coins also requires an edge inscription on each piece showing the coins content.
Fifty-six coins will be produced for the series in total which debuted in 2010 and runs through 2021 at a rate of five per year. Each coin will feature a unique reverse from each-other and be based on a site of national interest with one chosen from each state, the District of Columbia and the five territories of the United States (American Samoa, US Virgin Islands, Guam, Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands). National interest sites include locations such as national parks, national monuments, etc.
One coin will be issued in 2020 before the Weir strike as part of the America the Beautiful series and will showcase the National Park of American Samoa. Three coins will follow honoring Salt River Bay National Historical Park and Ecological Preserve of the US Virgin Islands, Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park of Vermont and Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve of Kansas.
Weir Farm National Historic Site in Connecticut
The Weir Farm National Historic Site located in Connecticut is the only national park site to be dedicated to American painting. As you can imagine, then, the park not only preserves the structures associated with the farm but informs visitors of the artistry involved in the work of J. Alden Weir, the former owner of the farm.
J. Alden Weir was an American Impressionist painter who was born in 1852 and lived until 1919. Weir was the son of a painter, who received his initial training at the National Academy of Design before studying abroad. While in France he first encountered a method of painting known as impressionism to which Weir had the following comments:
"I never in my life saw more horrible things," stated Weir about impressionism. "They do not observe drawing nor form but give you an impression of what they call nature. It was worse than the Chamber of Horrors."
Weir’s distaste for the art form did not last long, however and he soon accepted it as his own. He quickly became known as one of the most talented artists of his time and desired a retreat from the hustle and critique of the big city. Accordingly, he created a retreat for himself and fellow artists at his farm located in rural Connecticut. It is this location that the Park Service maintains today after having been established in 1990.