2000 Medal Navajo Code Talkers 38mm

Coin Details

Description

This 38mm medal honors the Navajo Code Talkers, the most famous of all Native American code talker groups, whose unbreakable code based on the Navajo language played a critical role in the Pacific Theater of World War II. The Navajo Code Talkers program began in 1942 when Philip Johnston, a civil engineer who had grown up on the Navajo reservation and spoke the language fluently, proposed using Navajo as a military code to the Marine Corps. The resulting program recruited over 400 Navajo men who developed and deployed a sophisticated communication code that the Japanese never broke. The obverse features imagery honoring the Navajo Code Talkers' extraordinary contribution, which remained classified for decades after the war ended. The code they developed went beyond simple translation — the Navajo speakers created an entirely new vocabulary of military terms within their language, using words for animals, natural phenomena, and everyday objects to represent military equipment, tactics, and units. The code's security derived not only from the extreme rarity of non-Navajo speakers of the language but also from the additional layer of coded vocabulary that would have been meaningless even to a Navajo speaker unfamiliar with the system. The reverse carries commemorative inscriptions. The 2000 date coincides with the Congressional Gold Medal authorization for the original twenty-nine Navajo Code Talkers who developed the code, followed by Silver Medals for the remaining participants. This 38mm bronze version made the tribute accessible to collectors and the general public, ensuring wide distribution of this recognition.

Rarity Notes

Bronze medal, 38mm. Coincides with the 2000 Congressional Gold Medal authorization for the original 29 Navajo Code Talkers.

Cross References

PCGS #508939; Navajo Code Talkers; Congressional Gold Medal Act of 2000 (P.L. 106-554)