2013-S Perry's Memorial Proof

The 2013-S Perry's Memorial clad proof carries Don Everhart's reverse honoring Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry and his victory at the Battle of Lake Erie in September 1813. San Francisco struck 1,232,104 pieces of the issue for inclusion in the 14-coin Proof Set and the five-coin Quarters Proof Set, matching the rest of the 2013 ATB proof slate to the unit. The design renders the bronze Perry statue that stands inside the memorial rotunda at Put-in-Bay, Ohio, with the column of the memorial implied by the surrounding field treatment. The issue is the second of the five 2013 releases and marked the bicentennial year of the battle the memorial commemorates.

Proof finish on the issue is the standard San Francisco approach: mirrored fields produced from polished planchets struck against dies frosted in chemical baths before each press run. Cameo (CAM) and Deep Cameo (DCAM) are the two contrast designations applied by PCGS, the Professional Coin Grading Service, and NGC, the Numismatic Guaranty Company. DCAM is the default outcome on modern S-mint clad proofs rather than a rare upgrade tier, and grade distribution at the two services clusters heavily at PR69-DCAM and PR70-DCAM. The statue's surface texture and the detail of the Naval uniform are the diagnostic strike areas, since a soft strike will flatten the bronze-rendered relief into a generic figure. Counterfeit risk is essentially nil at the price point, and the issue arrives at the grading services straight from the original Mint packaging.

Collector demand for the issue routes through year-set or design-set assembly rather than standalone purchase. A raw certified PR69-DCAM example trades for a few dollars over the cost of breaking up a sealed 2013 Proof Set, and PR70-DCAM examples in NGC or PCGS holders sit at a modest premium that has compressed across the past several auction cycles. The Perry's Memorial reverse is one of the more historically specific designs in the ATB run, since most reverse subjects honor natural features or archaeological sites rather than military commemorative monuments. The bicentennial timing was intentional and the design's market visibility has not yet caught up to its historical weight. For the broader story of the ATB proof program and the series' production arc, see the Washington ATB series history.