The Making of America: The First 150 Years (six-coin boxed set) LIMITED EDITION

THE MAKING OF AMERICA “America the Beautiful,” one of the most popular patriotic songs, ends with an appeal to God to bless America “from sea to shining sea.” The current map of the United States is so fixed in our imagination, it’s easy to forget that the territorial expansion of the country came slowly and incrementally. Just as there were not 50 stars on the flag until Hawaii joined the Union in 1959, there was no “sea to shining sea” for decades after the founding of the country. America began 250 years ago as a British colony; King George III of Great Britain was the tyrant the Founders declared their independence from. Under the leadership of Thomas Jefferson, the third president, the U.S. acquired a vast swath of land from France in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. In exchange for $15 million, which the French badly needed for its war effort, the United States almost doubled in size. In 1848, less than a decade after the annexation of Texas, the Mexican Cession gave the United States all of today’s California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah, as well as parts of Texas, Colorado, and Wyoming. In what was preposterously termed “Seward’s Folly,” the U.S. purchased Alaska from the Russian Empire in 1867. More territories were added at the end of the Spanish-American War, including Puerto Rico. The U.S. also agreed in 1903 to lease the Guantanamo Bay area in Cuba. In 1904, the United States assumed ownership of the Panama Canal Zone, after Panama declared independence from Colombia. While there were border disputes here and there, and territories joining the Union throughout the first half of the 20th century, the map of America was more or less established by then. This 250th anniversary set contains coins from six important periods of America’s territorial growth: 1/ Great Britain, George III, silver shilling2/ French Java, Napoleon, duit3/ Spain, various rulers, cobb4/ Russia, Alexander I, kopek5/ Cuba, 5 centavos6/ Panama, ½ centésimo

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