U.S. Mint Issues 2,983 Half-Dollar Coins Marking 25th Anniversary of September 11
The coin release ties a federal commemorative program directly to the death toll from both the 2001 attacks and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, reflecting how Congress-authorized mint...
The United States Mint presented 2,983 limited-edition half-dollar coins to the National September 11 Memorial and Museum on Friday, September 12, 2026, with each coin representing one person killed in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks or the February 26, 1993 World Trade Center bombing, according to the Washington Examiner.
The coin is formally designated the Semiquincentennial Enduring Liberty Half Dollar. Its obverse features the date "9-11-01" encircled by the inscription "ALWAYS REMEMBER," per the Washington Examiner report.
The production and release of commemorative coins by the U.S. Mint requires congressional authorization under 31 U.S.C. Section 5112, which governs the denomination, design, and issuance of commemorative coinage. The specific legislation authorizing this coin was not identified in the source material reviewed. The text of any authorizing act would be available through Congress.gov and would name the sponsors, the authorized mintage ceiling, and the surcharge amount, if any, directed to a designated beneficiary organization.
Federal commemorative coin programs frequently include a surcharge provision under which a fixed dollar amount from each coin sold is transferred to a nonprofit partner. For example, the National Law Enforcement Memorial Fund received a $10 surcharge per coin under the 2021 National Law Enforcement Museum Commemorative Coin Act (Public Law 116-94, Division Q, Title VIII). Whether the Semiquincentennial Enduring Liberty Half Dollar carries a comparable surcharge benefiting the National September 11 Memorial and Museum is not stated in available source material. The U.S. Mint's published coin program page would contain that information.
The 2,983 figure presented to the museum corresponds to the combined death toll from both attacks: 2,977 people killed on September 11, 2001, across the four crash sites in New York, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, plus six people killed in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center North Tower, according to figures maintained by the National September 11 Memorial and Museum.
The U.S. Mint is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury. Its commemorative coin programs are self-financing under federal law, meaning production costs are recovered through coin sales rather than appropriated funds, per the U.S. Mint's standard program disclosures.
The presentation occurred on the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks. The National September 11 Memorial and Museum is a nonprofit organization located at the World Trade Center site in lower Manhattan. It receives no direct federal operating appropriation; the institution is funded through admissions, donations, and government grants, per its publicly filed IRS Form 990.
Commemoratively minted coins are legal tender but are produced in limited quantities and sold at a premium above face value. A half-dollar coin carries a face value of fifty cents. The sale price for this coin was not reported in available source material. U.S. Mint pricing for commemorative coins is published on usmint.gov at the time of public sale.
Several facts remain unknown from available source material: the congressional act number and prime sponsors who authorized the coin, the total authorized mintage beyond the 2,983 presented to the museum, the public sale price, and whether a surcharge provision directs revenue to the memorial. The authorizing legislation, if enacted, would be recorded in the Congressional Record and retrievable through Congress.gov. The Mint's program page and the museum's future Form 990 filings would document financial flows between the two institutions.
For additional context on federal programs tied to September 11 commemorations, see TCT's earlier report on the 9/11 Trial for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Set for 2028, 27 Years After Attacks.