2019-P Georgia

Philadelphia's Georgia issue, struck in 474,550 pieces, is the larger of the two 2019 Georgia business strikes and the final state-themed Philadelphia release of 2019 in the American Innovation program. Georgia entered the Union as the fourth ratifying state on January 2, 1788, which placed it last among the four 2019 designs in statehood order. The Trustees' Garden honored on the reverse predates the Constitution by more than half a century: James Oglethorpe and the Trustees for the Establishment of the Colony of Georgia opened the ten-acre plot near the Savannah River bluff in 1733, the same year they founded the colony, to test which Old World and tropical crops could survive on the coastal plain.

The reverse, by Emily Damstra and sculpted by Michael Gaudioso, is one of the more compositionally dense designs in the early Innovation series. A hand presses seeds into soil that doubles as the lettering "TRUSTEES' GARDEN," and from those letters rise eight identified plants: an orange tree seedling, sassafras, grapes, white mulberry, flax, peaches, olive, plus a young shoot small enough that the Mint's design notes leave it unidentified. The white mulberry refers to the colony's failed silk experiment; mulberries fed silkworms, peaches did not, and the peaches in the design represent what actually thrived. Justin Kunz's Statue of Liberty obverse, with relief modeling by Phebe Hemphill, carries across the program. Coins were distributed in 25-coin rolls and 100-coin bags rather than released into general circulation.

In the collecting market, the 2019-P Georgia is common in raw rolls and through the lower Mint State grades; PCGS, the Professional Coin Grading Service, and NGC, the Numismatic Guaranty Company, have certified it without difficulty into the high MS67 and MS68 range, where condition rarity rather than mintage drives price. Year-set and series-set builders need it to complete 2019. The piece is recommended raw for casual collectors and certified at MS68 or higher for registry buyers, since the Damstra reverse rewards careful inspection of the leaf and fruit detail. Background on the program's structure is covered in the American Innovation Dollar series history.