US Marshals Service 225th Anniversary Commemorative Coin Act Becomes Law

The United States Marshals Service 225th Anniversary Commemorative Coin Act became Public Law 112-104 with President Obama’s signature on April 2, 2012.

Beginning in 2015, the U.S. Mint will release gold, silver and clad commemorative coins in honor of the U.S. Marshals Service and its 225 years of service. The nation’s first Federal law enforcement agency was founded in 1789 and its 225th anniversary occurs in year 2014. Each of the coins minted will feature those two anniversary dates, as well as their year of minting, 2015.

A limited number of the coins may get produced in year 2014 as the U.S. Mint is authorized to provide examples to the Director of the United States Marshals Service and employees of the Service for the purposes of celebrating their 225th anniversary.

The legislation was first introduced on March 2, 2011 in the U.S. House of Representatives by Rep. Steve Womack. It sailed through with House approval on December 15, 2011. The Senate took up the bill, numbered H.R. 886, and passed it with some minor tweaks on March 15, 2012. The amended version of the bill again made its way through the House with passage on March 21, 2012.

As now mandated in the United States Marshals Service 225th Anniversary Commemorative Coin Act, the U.S. Mint will offer a maximum of 100,000 $5 gold coins, 500,000 silver dollars and 750,000 clad half dollars. Both proof and uncirculated qualities will be produced, which means there will be a total of six unique coins. Their specifications will be the same as other modern day commemoratives, and each will have the traditional American coin inscriptions of ‘Liberty’, ‘In God We Trust’, ‘United States of America’, and ‘E Pluribus Unum’ — along with the aforementioned dates.

The obverse design of the $5 gold commemorative coin will feature the U.S. Marshals Service Star, while the reverse will include the Marshals Service motto ‘Justice, Integrity, Service’ with a design symbolic of the sacrifice and service given by the Marshals who lost their lives in the line of duty.

Like the gold strike, the U.S. Marshals Service Star will be used on the silver dollar’s obverse. The design on the dollar’s reverse will portray the Marshals legendary status as the lawmen of our frontiers and also incorporate the motto, ‘Justice, Integrity, Service.’

The designs on the clad commemorative coin will be unique. The obverse will showcase a design to be emblematic of the Marshals Service and its history. For the reverse, a more complicated design is outlined in the Public Law 112-104. The language states that the designs should link the Marshals to the Constitution with suggested themes of the Whiskey Rebellion, slavery, and the struggle between labor and capital.

All sales of coins will include a surcharge as follows:

(1) A surcharge of $35 per coin for the $5 gold coin.

(2) A surcharge of $10 per coin for the $1 silver coin.

(3) A surcharge of $3 per coin for the half dollar coin.

According to Public Law 112-104, the first $5 million in surcharges will go to the United States Marshals Museum to preserve, maintain and display artifacts and documents. Amounts above the $5 million will get split into thirds to help support the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, the National Law Enforcement Museum, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.