2011-D James A. Garfield

Denver struck 37,100,000 James A. Garfield dollars in 2011, an exact match to the Philadelphia figure for the same design and a sharp drop from the Lincoln totals that closed 2010. The Garfield issue entered general distribution on November 17, 2011 as the fourth and final 2011 Presidential Dollar after Andrew Johnson (February), Ulysses S. Grant (May), and Rutherford B. Hayes (August). That 37.1 million figure tells the surplus story plainly: by late 2011 the Federal Reserve was sitting on tens of millions of unissued Presidential Dollars, and the United States Mint was less than four weeks from the December 13, 2011 announcement that suspended new releases into circulation entirely. The 2011-D Garfield is among the last Denver Presidential Dollars actually distributed to commercial banks. Phebe Hemphill sculpted the obverse portrait; Don Everhart's Statue of Liberty reverse, used on every business strike in the series, appears on the Denver pieces as well.

Plain-edge errors, where a planchet bypasses the third-strike edge-lettering press, surface on 2011 dollars at lower rates than the 2007 Washington run that drew the original "Godless dollar" coverage, and authenticated examples certified by PCGS, the Professional Coin Grading Service, or NGC, the Numismatic Guaranty Company, still command three- and four-figure premiums when they appear. The high points of Garfield's hair and beard are the first details to soften under die wear, so MS66 and MS67 examples with full sharpness in those areas are scarcer than population reports might imply. A reader new to certified coins should examine the portrait's relief first; that is where the strike grade is decided.

The 2011-D Garfield is a common date best acquired in original Mint-wrapped rolls and bags from the 2011 product run, where high-grade examples can be cherry-picked at small premiums over face value. PCGS MS67 slabs trade for modest figures and often cost less than searching multiple rolls outright. Issues like this one carry a structural distinction the 2012-2020 NIFC dollars do not: they were actually released into circulation. For program-wide context, including the December 2011 transition to collector-only distribution, see the Presidential Dollar series history.