1980 American Arts Commemorative Medallion - Grant Wood

Coin Details

Auction Record

$2,550 MS67 02-21-2021 eBay

Description

The 1980 American Arts Gold Medallion featuring Grant Wood is a one-troy-ounce gold piece created under the American Arts Gold Medallion Act, Public Law 95-630, signed by President Carter on November 10, 1978. The program was conceived as a domestic alternative to the South African Krugerrand, which dominated the bullion market during an era of intense anti-apartheid sentiment. Congress directed the U.S. Mint to produce gold medallions honoring ten renowned Americans across five years, with one-ounce and half-ounce pieces released annually. The obverse features a portrait of Grant Wood (1891-1942), the Iowa-born painter whose regionalist style captured the rural American Midwest. Wood's likeness is rendered in profile facing left, with the inscription GRANT WOOD and the date 1980. The reverse displays a depiction inspired by Wood's most celebrated painting, "American Gothic" (1930), showing the stern-faced farmer and his daughter standing before their white clapboard house with its distinctive Gothic window. The composition captures the austere dignity that made the original painting an enduring icon of American art. ONE TROY OUNCE OF GOLD appears around the border. Despite the artistic merit of the designs, the American Arts Gold Medallion program was a commercial disappointment. The medallions lacked legal tender status, carried no face value, and bore no denomination — critical marketing handicaps against the Krugerrand, Canadian Maple Leaf, and other sovereign bullion coins that were guaranteed by their issuing governments. The Grant Wood piece was struck at the West Point Bullion Depository, which had not yet received official mint status. Unsold inventory was eventually melted, and the program's failure directly led to the creation of the American Gold Eagle program in 1986.

Rarity Notes

Total mintage of the 1980 one-ounce Grant Wood medallion was approximately 312,709 pieces. Many were melted by the Mint from unsold stock, making surviving examples less common than the original production figure indicates. The series as a whole saw declining sales each year.

Cross References

PCGS #20501; NGC #724002; Public Law 95-630; Swoger D1980-1