The Best of the Mint Series: All Five 2026 Gold Coin and Medal Sets
Every so often the US Mint does something that collectors will still be talking about decades later. The Best of the Mint series is one of those things.
For the Semiquincentennial, the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the Mint selected five of the greatest designs in American coinage and struck each one in 24-karat gold, paired with a large silver medal carrying new artwork inspired by the same design. Five sets, released across a single year, and then the program closes. The Mint has been clear that these sets are offered during 2026 only.
Two have already been released. Three are still ahead. Here is the full series, what is in each set, and where the schedule stands.
What Is Actually in a Best of the Mint Set
Every set follows the same format, which makes the series read as a collection rather than five unrelated products.
The gold coin. A faithful recreation of a classic American coin design struck in 24-karat gold at West Point, carrying the W mint mark and the original date of the design's first year. Each one also carries a Liberty Bell privy mark inscribed with the numeral 250, the marker the Mint has used across its Semiquincentennial products. The gold weight scales with the original coin's denomination, starting at one-tenth ounce for the dime and one-quarter ounce for the quarter, with the later sets in the series carrying larger gold coins.
The silver medal. One ounce of 99.9 percent fine silver, struck at Philadelphia, and this is the part collectors tend to underestimate. The medals are not copies of the coin design. Each one is new artwork by a contemporary Mint sculptor, interpreting the era the original coin circulated through. They are the most interesting thing the Mint has produced in years.
The packaging. Coin and medal are encapsulated and presented together in a black US Mint case with an outer sleeve and a certificate of authenticity carrying series imagery. For a program like this, keeping the original packaging intact matters to collectors who want the set complete.
The Five Sets
1. 1916 Mercury Dime
Released June 4, 2026. The set that opened the series.
Adolph A. Weinman's Winged Liberty design, issued from 1916 through 1945, shows Liberty in profile facing left in a winged cap that symbolizes freedom of thought. Weinman's intertwined AW initials sit near the date. The reverse carries a fasces, a bundle of rods bound together for strength through unity, flanked by a battle axe and an olive branch: military readiness alongside the desire for peace.
The companion medal is the one that surprised people. It runs a single panoramic composition across obverse and reverse, covering the years the dime actually circulated, 1916 to 1945. Liberty appears in both defensive and offensive postures for a country that entered two world wars in that span, with rays coming off her sword for hope at the end of conflict. Hooverville shacks stand for the Depression and swirling waves for the Dust Bowl. It is a serious piece of design work about a hard thirty years in US history.
The Mercury Dime set sold through its production limit and is no longer available from the Mint.
2. 1916 Standing Liberty Quarter
Released July 10, 2026. The second set in the series.
Hermon A. MacNeil's Standing Liberty is one of the shortest-lived designs in American coinage, struck for only fifteen years from 1916 to 1930. Liberty stands in an opening in a wall bearing 13 stars, head turned to look over the shield on her left arm, an olive branch extended in her right hand. Defense and peace held in the same gesture.
The medal takes the same figure somewhere new: a windswept Liberty holding her shield, turning to offer olive branches to an eagle in the distance.
3. 1916 Walking Liberty Half Dollar
Released August 6, 2026. Limited to 30,000 sets with a one-per-household order limit.
Weinman again, and this is the design many collectors would name first if asked for the most beautiful coin the United States has ever struck. Liberty in full stride, draped in the flag, walking toward the sunrise. The Mint thought enough of it to bring it back in 1986 for the obverse of the American Silver Eagle, which is why two entirely different groups of collectors recognize it on sight: classic collectors who know the half dollars from 1916 to 1947, and modern collectors who know the Eagles.
The silver medal for this set was designed by Andrew Sides.
4. 1804 Silver Dollar
Scheduled for August 2026.
The 1804 dollar is the coin the hobby calls the King of American Coins, and its story is stranger than its reputation suggests. The coins bearing that date were not struck in 1804 at all. They were produced decades later for diplomatic presentation sets, which is why only fifteen examples are known across all classes. Genuine specimens sit in museums and a small number of advanced collections, and they surface at auction perhaps once in a generation.
Putting that design in a set collectors can actually own is the boldest choice in the series.
5. Saint-Gaudens
Scheduled for later in 2026, closing the series.
Augustus Saint-Gaudens designed the $20 Gold at the request of Theodore Roosevelt, who wanted American coinage to match the artistic standard of ancient Greece. Liberty strides forward carrying a torch and an olive branch, the Capitol behind her, sun rays at her back. Struck from 1907 to 1933, it is routinely described as the finest coin the United States has ever produced, and ending the series with it is the right call.
Why These Five
The selections are not arbitrary. Four of the five come from the stretch between 1907 and 1921 that numismatists call the renaissance of American coinage, when Roosevelt's push for better design brought sculptors rather than mint engravers into the process. Saint-Gaudens started it. Weinman contributed both the Mercury Dime and the Walking Liberty Half in the same year. MacNeil's Standing Liberty arrived alongside them.
The 1804 dollar is the outlier, and it belongs there. It represents the other thing American numismatics is built on: the coins whose stories outgrew the metal they were struck in.
Collecting the Series
A few practical notes for anyone working through these sets.
The original coins are the natural companion. A gold Walking Liberty is a beautiful object, and it becomes a far better display next to a well-chosen 1916-S or a gem MS65 from the classic series. The same is true across the program. The Mercury Dime, Standing Liberty Quarter, and Walking Liberty Half are all deep, collectible series with entry points at every price level.
Certification documents the grade. We carry PCGS-certified examples of the Best of the Mint gold coins, which puts an independent grade and a sealed holder behind the set.
The release windows are short. Household order limits and fixed production caps mean the Mint sets move quickly at launch, and the two released so far have followed that pattern.
Best of the Mint at L&C Coins
We stock PCGS-certified examples from the Best of the Mint series as they are released and graded. The 1804 Silver Dollar and Saint-Gaudens sets are still ahead, and our wait list is the fastest way to hear when certified examples reach us. Wait list orders are filled first.
Join the Best of the Mint Wait List
Our family has been helping collectors find the coins that matter to them since 1974. Questions about the series, or about pairing these sets with the original coins? Call us at 1-800-669-0953.
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