James Madison, #4 in the Presidential Dollars series, with all of its new and unique features, in a value-priced roll of 25!

James Madison is the fourth of our presidents to be honored on this new dollar series from the United States Mint. Each Presidential Dollar will only be minted for a few weeks, then be available for a short period thereafter, before the next one in the series is released and the previous one is discontinued.

Availability
Unopened, unsearched rolls of the 2007-D Presidential Dollars are currently available! We also have these dollars individually and in unopened boxes of 1000 coins. These are the lowest prices we have seen anywhere for these soon-to-be sold out coins! Please click on the link below to see them all.

Click here for the all of the Presidential Dollar options!

Important Note! Each Presidential Dollar will be minted for a very limited time and will be made available for only about 13 weeks during its year of issue. This limited window of opportunity seems almost intentionally designed to make them difficult to collect, as most people will not have even heard of each new release (much less had the chance to acquire it) before it is no longer being minted and distributed. Order yours today!

Error Report
Even though these new dollars were just released, there are already several confirmed reports of errors, including:
     • Edge lettering completely missing!
     • Double edge lettering! The coins went through the edge-lettering machine twice.
     • "Atheist", or at least "agnostic", dollars! These "Godless" dollars are missing the legend "In God We Trust" on the edge.

James Madison
Born in Virginia in 1751, James Madison was an excellent student with a keen intellect. He attended Princeton University graduating in only two years at the tender age of twenty! He served first in the Virginia state legislature (1776-79) and became known as a protégé of Thomas Jefferson. As delegate to the Continental Congress (1780-83), Madison was considered a legislative workhorse and a master of parliamentary detail. After the revolution, he was directly elected to the new United States House of Representatives and became an important leader from the First Congress (1789) through the Fourth Congress (1797). In Congress, he authored and helped secure passage for the Bill of Rights.

Madison continued his ascent to the highest perch in government. Upon Jefferson's election to the Presidency, Madison was named his mentor's Secretary of State. In this position he had a number of successes, the most significant being overseeing the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. After Jefferson's two terms in office, Madison was the natural choice to succeed him, which he did.

Although James Madison is one of the Founding Fathers of the American Republic, he is not as well remembered as others who have tended to overshadow him in the public's memory. Nonetheless, his career was exemplary and his presidency was marked by a number of notable events, not the least of which was the War of 1812!

France and Great Britain were at war when Madison was elected to the presidency. Though he favored neutrality, the continued harassment of American shipping on the high seas (including the illegal stopping and search of American vessels, the impressment of sailors, and the seizure of cargo) forced President Madison to ask Congress for a declaration of war with Great Britain on June 1, 1812. In what was effectively a second war of independence, the United States eventually triumphed, with General Andrew Jackson sealing the deal in January, 1815 at the Battle of New Orleans, ironically after the Treaty of Ghent had already ended the war in December, 1814.

Madison was much more than just President. As a political philosopher and theorist, he wrote the Federalist Papers with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, a series of 85 essays that advocated the adoption of the Constitution. As the "Father of the Constitution", he was the primary author of this most important of documents. Throughout his long life he continued to draft documents of political importance. He believed very strongly that the new nation should fight against aristocracy and corruption and was deeply committed to creating mechanisms that would ensure republicanism in the United States.

When he passed away on June 28, 1836, Madison was the last remaining signatory of the Constitution, the supreme law of the United States that he himself had helped to draft nearly fifty years earlier. In the words of historian Garry Wills:

“Madison's claim on our admiration does not rest on a perfect consistency, any more than it rests on his presidency. He has other virtues... As a framer and defender of the Constitution he had no peer... The finest part of Madison's performance as president was his concern for the preserving of the Constitution... No man could do everything for the country - not even Washington. Madison did more than most, and did some things better than any. That was quite enough."

Today Madison may very well be best known for his beautiful and flamboyant wife, Dolley Madison. Seventeen years his junior and a widow, James married her in 1794, adopting her young son John Payne Todd, though they had no children of their own. Dolley was as considered an attractive and vivacious woman who is credited by history for defining the role of "First Lady". Dolley was no shrinking violet, which she proved during the War of 1812. When the British overran the capital in 1814, she rescued many valuable treasures, including state papers and the famous Gilbert Stuart painting of President George Washington, from the White House before it was burned by the British army. Afterwards, she slept with a saber at her side, lest she be caught unawares by the marauding redcoats.

For a photographic presentation on the designing and minting of the first Presidential Dollar, please click here.

Special Features
There are several novel features on the Presidential Dollar coins. For example, the denomination is given as "$1" on the reverse, instead of the traditional "Dollar". Other features include:

Presidential Portrait
The obverse of each coin features a portrait of the president, the order in which he served, and the dates of his term in office. Grover Cleveland, the only president to serve two non-continuous terms, will be honored on two different coins.

Edge Lettering
In order to allow more space on both the obverse and reverse for the designs, a special act of Congress permits several of the required legends to be moved to edge. These inscriptions are incuse. The edge lettering of each Presidential Dollar coin includes:
    • In God We Trust
    • E Pluribus Unum
    • The year of issue
    • The mint mark
This is the first time edge lettering has been used on a United States coin since 1932.

Statue of Liberty
The word "Liberty" does not appear anywhere on the Presidential Dollar coins, unlike all other circulating U.S. coins. Instead this quintessentially American value is represented by the depiction of the Statue of Liberty on the reverse. For a short history of Lady Liberty, please see the article lower on this page.

Click here for other great coins and medals featuring the Statue of Liberty!

Obverse
A portrait of James Madison, with his name, the legend 4TH PRESIDENT, and the dates of his terms in office, 1809-1817.

Reverse
A portrait of the Statue of Liberty, with her torch of freedom held high aloft. The legend UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and the denomination also appear.

Specifications

Country	United States of America
Year of Issue	2007
Issuing Authority	United States Mint
Face Value	25 Dollars (25 x 1 Dollar)
Weight	202.5 g (25 x 8.1 g per coin)
Diameter	26.5 mm
Finish	Brilliant Uncirculated
Composition	Manganese/Bronze Alloy Layered over Copper Core .885 Copper, .06 Zinc, .035 Magnesium, .02 Nickel
Edge	Plain, with edge lettering
Artist	Joel Iskowitz (obverse)
	Don Everhart (reverse)