2019-D Georgia

Denver's Georgia issue closes the 2019 American Innovation Dollar slate, struck in 455,800 coins late in the production year and shipped through numismatic channels rather than general circulation. The Denver figure is the lowest of the two Georgia business strikes. The coin honors the Trustees' Garden, a ten-acre experimental plot James Oglethorpe and the Trustees for the Establishment of the Colony of Georgia laid out in Savannah in 1733 to test which European, Asian, and Caribbean crops could survive the coastal Georgia climate. Georgia ratified the Constitution on January 2, 1788 as the fourth state, which fixed its slot in the program's statehood-order release schedule.

Justin Kunz's Statue of Liberty obverse carries across the entire program, with relief modeling by Phebe Hemphill. The reverse, designed by Emily Damstra and sculpted by Michael Gaudioso, shows a hand pressing seeds into soil that doubles as the inscription "TRUSTEES' GARDEN," with eight identified plants growing from the lettering: an orange tree seedling, sassafras, grapes, white mulberry, flax, peaches, olive, and a small unnamed shoot. Denver strikes typically show clean detail in the seedling foliage and the central hand, though weaker examples occur on coins struck late in a die's life. The coin was distributed in 25-coin rolls and 100-coin bags, so most surviving pieces carry original Mint surfaces.

For collectors, the 2019-D Georgia is a registry play rather than an absolute scarcity. PCGS, the Professional Coin Grading Service, and NGC, the Numismatic Guaranty Company, certify it routinely through the upper Mint State range, and condition rarity at MS68 and higher drives whatever price separation the coin achieves over face value. Year-set and series-set builders need it to close out 2019. Raw rolls remain available at modest premiums. The piece is recommended raw for casual collectors and certified at MS68 or higher for registry buyers; original-Mint-wrap rolls with date-of-issue documentation hold a small premium over generic rolls. Background on the program's structure is covered in the American Innovation Dollar series history.