2011-S Ulysses S. Grant Proof

San Francisco struck 1,972,863 proof Ulysses S. Grant dollars in 2011, the second design in that year's four-coin proof set after Andrew Johnson and ahead of Hayes and Garfield. The figure is shared across all four 2011 Presidential Dollar proofs because the United States Mint produced them as a single proof-set run, and at 1.97 million it sits roughly 11 percent below the 2010 proof level of 2,224,613, the second consecutive year-over-year decline in collector-set sales for the program. The Grant proof reached buyers either inside the four-coin Presidential Dollar Proof Set or as part of the larger fourteen-coin annual Proof Set. Don Everhart sculpted both the obverse Grant portrait and the Statue of Liberty reverse used on every business-strike and proof Presidential Dollar in the series. The coin launched on May 19, 2011 alongside its Philadelphia and Denver business-strike counterparts.

San Francisco proof Presidential Dollars are struck twice on polished planchets with frosted dies, producing the contrast between mirrored fields and frosted devices known as Cameo. The standard expectation on a 2011-S Grant is Deep Cameo, the strongest grade of contrast, abbreviated DCAM by PCGS, the Professional Coin Grading Service, and Ultra Cameo, abbreviated UCAM by NGC, the Numismatic Guaranty Company. Coins falling short of those designations are uncommon enough that they trade at a small discount rather than a premium. The grade ceiling sits at PR70 DCAM, where small flaws in the high-relief obverse field around Grant's portrait, struck in higher relief than the reverse, are typically what separates a 70 from a 69. A reader new to certified proofs should think of the 69-versus-70 line as a question of microscopic field marks visible under five-power magnification rather than visible design wear.

Collector use of this coin is straightforward. It fits into a complete forty-coin Presidential Dollar proof run, into a 2011-only four-coin proof set, or into a single-design Grant three-coin set with the Philadelphia and Denver business strikes. Raw proofs from broken-up Mint sets are inexpensive, and PR69 DCAM slabs trade for modest premiums; PR70 DCAM coins carry a meaningful step up but remain accessible. For program-wide context, including the 2012 transition to collector-only distribution that began the year after this proof was struck, see the Presidential Dollar series history.