The U.S. Mint has released rolls and bags of the 2026 Enduring Liberty half dollar, putting the Statue of Liberty–inspired design into circulation on two-roll sets and bulk 200-coin bags.
Designer Donna Weaver’s close-up view of the Statue of Liberty appears on the obverse, marked with the dual dates 1776 ~ 2026, while the reverse shows Liberty passing her torch to a new generation. The Mint is selling the halves as $60 two-roll sets — each set contains one 20-coin roll from Philadelphia and one 20-coin roll from Denver — and as $180 200-coin bags that hold 100 coins from Philadelphia and 100 coins from Denver.
The release replaces the longtime Kennedy portrait on the half dollar for one year only; the denomination last appeared without President John F. Kennedy’s portrait in 1964. The Mint began shipping 2026 Semiquincentennial coins to Federal Reserve Banks on Jan. 5, making these halves the most visible pieces of the agency’s official 250th-anniversary program so far.
The pair of Enduring Liberty designs — the obverse created by Donna Weaver and sculpted by John McGraw, and the reverse created by Beth Zaiken and sculpted by Darla Jackson — was chosen from among 17 candidates reviewed in late 2024. That selection capped a process the Mint says is deliberate and public-facing: a committee review, artistic submissions and sculptural modeling that together yield the final dies.
Not every Semiquincentennial release is aimed at general circulation. The Mint opened sales for the 2026 American Eagle One Ounce Gold Enhanced Uncirculated Coin on Thursday, May 28 at noon EDT. The 2026-W Gold Eagle carries the same dual dates, 1776 ~ 2026, and includes a Liberty Bell privy mark bearing the numeral 250. The coin uses Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ Liberty on the obverse — the Mint says the 2026 obverse draws from the original bronze cast of Saint-Gaudens’ Liberty — and a detailed eagle portrait on the reverse. It is finished in an Enhanced Uncirculated style, placed in a clamshell inside a classic black presentation case, and limited to a mintage of 7,500 coins. Sales in the first 24 hours are restricted to one coin per household.
Artists who have worked with the Mint say the combination of public-facing and low-mintage products is deliberate. Chris Polentz, who was selected through the U.S. Mint’s Artistic Infusion Program and later designed the 2025 American Liberty High Relief Gold Coin, called the work consequential: "We are recording American history on coins and medals," he said, adding that "it is quite an involved process." Polentz described such commissions as a rare chance — "Once in a lifetime opportunity and very exciting" — and admitted the weight of expectation, saying, "I felt a lot of pressure, or maybe I put it on myself, wondering if I was really qualified and could I deliver?" He also noted that "My work is not what I would call mainstream."
The contrast is the story’s tension. The Enduring Liberty half dollar is being produced for wide distribution in rolls and bags, making it likely to surface in banks and wallets across the country, while the 2026-W Gold Eagle is intentionally scarce, aimed at collectors who compete for limited releases. At the same time, the Mint has signaled that the half dollar’s interruption of the Kennedy portrait is temporary: beginning in 2027 the denomination will return to a portrait of John F. Kennedy on the obverse paired with rotating reverse designs honoring Paralympic sports — a program that has already been recommended.
For collectors and casual holders alike the near-term choice is clear: the Enduring Liberty half is the most widely available Semiquincentennial emblem, while the Gold Eagle will be fought over. The us mint’s strategy — mass-market circulation items alongside tightly constrained collector pieces — means 2026 will be remembered both as the year the half dollar briefly shed Kennedy and as the year the Mint pushed scarcity and symbolism in parallel.
