(2025-S) Medal James Garfield Silver Matte Finish

Coin Details

Description

This silver matte-finish medal from the San Francisco Mint honors President James A. Garfield, the twentieth president whose brief tenure was cut short by assassination. Garfield served only 200 days, from March 4 to September 19, 1881, after being shot by Charles Guiteau on July 2 at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station in Washington. Garfield lingered for eleven weeks as doctors probed for the bullet with unsterilized instruments, almost certainly worsening his condition. Despite his short presidency, Garfield was an accomplished man — a Civil War general, college president, mathematician, and polyglot who could write simultaneously in Latin with one hand and Greek with the other. His assassination, like Lincoln's before him, shocked the nation and directly led to civil service reform under his successor Chester Arthur. This silver matte-finish medal honors a president of extraordinary intellectual gifts whose potential was never realized.

Rarity Notes

Scarce. San Francisco Mint silver matte-finish presidential medal. Garfield's assassination story adds historical interest.

Cross References

PCGS #941827; James Garfield; Silver Matte Finish; Presidential Medal; 2024-S