2011-S Vicksburg Proof

The 2011-S Vicksburg Proof is the fourth release of San Francisco's second ATB proof year, struck against the 1,268,958-set production figure that anchors every 2011 clad proof issue. Thomas Cleveland's reverse renders the USS Cairo on the Yazoo River, the Union ironclad gunboat sunk by Confederate torpedo on December 12, 1862 and raised in 1964 after over a century of submerged preservation. The hull now anchors the USS Cairo Museum inside Vicksburg National Military Park, and the reverse's stern-quarter perspective preserves the angle visitors see from the museum walkway. Vicksburg paired naturally with Gettysburg in the same year: both surrendered on July 4, 1863, the Mississippi River campaign concluding the day after Pickett's Charge dissolved on the Pennsylvania field.

Authentication on the issue starts with the S mintmark above Washington's head and the surface contrast that defines modern proof work. PCGS, the Professional Coin Grading Service, and NGC apply two cameo designations that drive most of the market value: Cameo (CAM), strong mirror-to-frost contrast, and Deep Cameo (DCAM), where the frost on the ironclad's casemate plating, the smokestacks, and the deck guns is heavy and dense and the field mirror is unbroken. Look at the cannon-port spacing and the riverbank tree line for strike grading. The mechanical detail on the ship's casemate rivets and gun barrels is among the finest design work in the entire ATB series, which makes strike sharpness disproportionately important on the issue. The clad composition (75% copper-nickel over a pure copper core, 5.67 grams, 24.26 mm) matches every Washington quarter struck since 1965, so counterfeit risk on the modern alloy is functionally zero.

As a collecting target, this is a Regular-classification issue widely available in PR69-DCAM across both major services and steadily supplied in PR70-DCAM at a workable premium. Pop reports for the date show standard distribution, with the real climb at PR70-DCAM rather than at the Deep Cameo break. The piece draws a small additional demand bump from naval-history collectors and Civil War specialists, who pair the issue with the 2011-S Gettysburg proof to complete the year's two Civil War battlefield designs. For the broader story of the ATB proof program and the series' production arc, see the Washington ATB series history.