2016-P Fort Moultrie

The 2016-P Fort Moultrie closed the year's five-release cycle and honored the palmetto-log fort that defended Charleston Harbor during the Revolutionary War's June 1776 British naval attack. Richard Masters's reverse, sculpted by Michael Gaudioso, shows Sergeant William Jasper hoisting the regimental colors back over the wall after a British cannonball cut the flagstaff down, a moment that turned the engagement into a defining early American victory. Philadelphia struck 154,400,000 pieces, matching exactly the Denver Harpers Ferry figure from earlier in the year and producing one of the lower Philadelphia 2016 ATB outputs.

Strike quality on the issue tracks the broader 2016 Philadelphia run: dies were generally well maintained, but the fine reverse detail on Jasper's uniform, the flag folds, and the fort's log construction is where graders separate gem from near-gem. Look at the flag's vertical stripes and the soldier's coat folds for strike grading: late-die-state examples show flattening across those elements. The clad composition (75% copper-nickel over a pure copper core, 5.67 grams, 24.26 mm) matches every quarter struck since 1965, so counterfeit risk is functionally nil. PCGS (Professional Coin Grading Service) and NGC handle the high-grade market. Roll hunters working original P-mint bags still recover MS65 examples readily for this date.

As a collecting target, the coin is a Regular-classification entry where the year-closing release and the figural composition give the date a modest popularity edge over more landscape-focused 2016 designs. Population reports show standard 2016 distribution: well-supplied through MS66, a step-up at MS67, and a real climb at MS68 where the certified population thins to the low triple digits at PCGS. Series builders chasing the full ATB run typically pick the issue up raw or in MS66 slabs and reserve real money for the date in MS68, where the supply pressure tightens. For the broader story of the ATB program and the series' design arc, see the Washington ATB series history.