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Then came the moment she has been waiting for. A U.S. Mint employee handed her the final product: a $1 silver coin featuring the image of Harriet Tubman.Ìý

Hill, president and CEO of the Harriet Tubman Home in Auburn, was among the attendees at the ceremonial strike for the Tubman commemorative coins. The ceremony was held Tuesday at the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia, where the coins will be produced.Ìý

The coins will go on sale Jan. 4.Ìý

The event occurred more than three years after former U.S. Rep. John Katko, whose district included Auburn and Cayuga County, introduced a bill to require the U.S. Mint to produce the Tubman commemorative coins. At the time, the goal was to have the coins released in 2022 — the bicentennial of Tubman's birth.Ìý

In 2022, Congress passed the Tubman coin legislation and it was signed by President Joe Biden.Ìý

The U.S. Mint will produce up to 50,000 $5 gold coins, 400,000 $1 silver coins and 750,000 half-dollar clad coins. The surcharges will be $35 for the gold coins, $10 for the silver coins and $5 for the clad coins.Ìý

Two organizations — the Harriet Tubman Home and the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati — will split the proceeds. If all the coins are sold, each site will receive $4.75 million. Both entities must raise matching funds from private sources to receive the surcharges.Ìý

The designs of the coins were selected in July. The obverse of each coin features Tubman's likeness. On the reverse side, the coins recognize her work as an abolitionist guiding enslaved people to freedom and as a Civil War veteran who led the Combahee River Raid.

The reverse side of the gold coin will list Tubman's seven core values — community, equality, faith, family, freedom, self-determination and social justice. Hill noted that faith was what Tubman viewed as the most important of these values.Ìý

"We, as Americans, take great favor in the fact that our currency says 'In God We Trust,'" Hill said. "But now we have a woman for whom 'In God We Trust" is how she lived." 

Tubman's religious beliefs were also highlighted by Katko, who recalled visiting the Tubman home in Auburn and seeing her large Bible. The historic site is now part of the Harriet Tubman National Historical Park in Cayuga County.Ìý

Tubman, who lived in Auburn for more than half a century until her death in 1913, attended services at the Thompson Memorial AME Zion Church.ÌýSeveral AME Zion Church pastors attended the ceremonial coin strike.Ìý

"Faith was something that drove her," Katko said. "Faith is what drives a lot of you here today. Faith is what got this project done, so I'm really glad to be part of it." 

The Rev. Dennis Proctor, bishop of the AME Zion Church's northeastern district, lauded Tubman as a "woman who stood against the odds." Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who was unable to attend the ceremony but submitted a video message, said she is a "legendary New Yorker and a great American hero." 

A commemorative coin is a rare honor. Since the program's inception in 1982, Congress can authorize the U.S. Mint to produce no more than two commemorative coins annually. Past coins celebrated the in 2020 and the National Baseball Hall of Fame's 75th anniversary in 2014.Ìý

According to U.S. Mint Director Ventris Gibson, the commemorative coin program has provided more than $522 million to build museums and preserve historic sites.Ìý

The Harriet Tubman Home stands to be the latest beneficiary of the coin program. Hill has said the windfall could be used to fund the construction of a visitor center or make other improvements, such as additional programming at the South Street property.Ìý

But for the Tubman home to move forward with any projects, people need to buy the coins. Hill made her sales pitch to the public with more than a month to go before the coins are available for purchase.Ìý

"Every family in this nation should have some of Harriet's legacy to pass down to generations yet unborn," she said.Ìý