2011-P Ulysses S. Grant

Philadelphia struck 38,080,000 Ulysses S. Grant dollars in 2011, the largest Philadelphia figure of any 2011 Presidential Dollar and the highest single P-mint total of that year's four designs (Andrew Johnson, Grant, Hayes, Garfield). Released on May 19, 2011 as the second of four issues, the Grant dollar pulled stronger Federal Reserve orders than its 2011 stablemates because Grant's name carried recognizability the other three 2011 honorees could not match. Don Everhart sculpted both the obverse Grant portrait and the Statue of Liberty reverse used on every business-strike Presidential Dollar in the program. The 2011 Philadelphia issues collectively close out the circulation run of the series; effective December 13, 2011, the United States Mint suspended Federal Reserve releases of Presidential Dollars after a billion-coin surplus had accumulated in vaults, and every Presidential Dollar struck from 2012 forward was distributed only through Mint collector products.

Presidential Dollars carry the P mintmark on the edge lettering rather than on the obverse or reverse, which means the mintmark survives strike strength better than on most modern American coins and disappears entirely on the plain-edge error pieces. Plain-edge 2011-P Grant dollars exist at low rates and trade at three- and four-figure premiums when authenticated by PCGS, the Professional Coin Grading Service, or NGC, the Numismatic Guaranty Company. Doubled edge lettering also turns up, and weak strikes show in Grant's beard and upper hair detail. MS66 and MS67 grades are commonly available because most of the certified Mint State population came from original wrapped rolls and bags. The grade ceiling sits at MS68, where bag-handling marks on the open obverse field around the portrait separate a 67 from a 68. A reader new to the hobby should examine the beard and the field around the cheek first.

The Philadelphia Grant is a common date most efficiently bought in original Mint-wrapped rolls and bags, where high-grade examples can be cherry-picked at small premiums over face value. Certified MS67 examples remain inexpensive enough that paying for the slab can cost less than the time spent searching rolls. For series-level context, including the December 2011 NIFC transition that ended the circulation distribution with this date's batch, see the Presidential Dollar series history.