The United States Mint is selling a circulating half dollar that carries a date needing no explanation. Pre-orders for the 2026 9/11 Enduring Liberty Half Dollar opened on September 10 and close on September 25 at 3 p.m. Eastern, offered in 20-coin rolls and 100-coin bags struck at Philadelphia. Every coin carries a privy mark on the obverse: the date 9-11-01, encircled by the phrase NEVER FORGET.
What makes the offering more than a commemorative footnote is what happened three weeks before it opened. In August the Mint delivered 2,983 of these same half dollars to the National 9/11 Memorial & Museum, struck at West Point, and those coins say something different. There are now two privy mark wordings on one design, in one year, from two facilities, and only one of them can be ordered.
A privy mark with one job
The Mint created the Philadelphia issue to commemorate the lives lost in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and in the World Trade Center bombing of February 26, 1993. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent framed the coins as a recognition of the victims, survivors, and first responders of both attacks.
Mint Director Paul Hollis put the emphasis somewhere more practical. Offering the coins in rolls and bags, he said, gives more Americans a physical reminder of the day, and creates a teaching opportunity for younger generations, “many of whom were not even born.”
That is an unusual justification for a Mint product, and it is the most revealing line in the entire announcement. The Mint is not describing a collectible. It is describing a delivery mechanism for memory.
The first 2,983
On August 21, the Mint presented 2,983 special issue Enduring Liberty Half Dollars to the National 9/11 Memorial & Museum in New York, struck at the Mint’s West Point facility and delivered ahead of the September remembrance.
The number is the story. The Memorial’s names comprise 2,977 people killed on September 11, 2001, and six killed in the 1993 bombing. The Mint struck exactly as many coins as the Memorial has names.
Those pieces carry the date 9-11-01 encircled by ALWAYS REMEMBER. They were never part of a sales offering, and what becomes of them now rests with the Memorial rather than with the Mint’s order queue.
Two wordings, one design year
For anyone building a 2026 set, the distinction matters more than the usual mintmark arithmetic.
West Point struck ALWAYS REMEMBER. Philadelphia struck NEVER FORGET. Both sit inside a design that exists for a single calendar year, on a denomination that returns to the Kennedy portrait in 2027. There is no 2027 equivalent to chase, no proof-and-uncirculated ladder to complete, and no second bite at either phrase.
That is a genuinely awkward shape for a collection. The standard non-privy marked Enduring Liberty Half Dollar entered circulation at the start of 2026 from Denver and Philadelphia. Add the two privy marked coins and the year produces a small branching tree rather than a clean pair of mintmarked coins, with one branch effectively unavailable at any price the Mint sets.
Here is the full Enduring Liberty roster as it stands.
| Mint mark | Finish | Privy mark | How to get one |
|---|---|---|---|
| P | Circulating | None | Pocket change, the Mint’s two-roll set and 200-coin bag since May 26, and the Uncirculated Coin Set since June 30 |
| D | Circulating | None | Pocket change, the same two-roll set and bag, and the same Uncirculated Coin Set |
| S | Proof, 99.9% silver | None | Mint only, in the 2026 Silver Proof Set, released June 11 |
| P | Circulating | 9-11-01, NEVER FORGET | Mint only, rolls and bags, pre-order closes September 25 |
| W | Not specified | 9-11-01, ALWAYS REMEMBER | Not available to the public. All 2,983 went to the National 9/11 Memorial & Museum |
One more is still to come. The clad Semiquincentennial Proof Set carries an S mintmark half dollar and is listed for release in the autumn, which will bring the year’s total to six distinct Enduring Liberty half dollars before the Kennedy portrait returns.
Liberty, looking forward
The design itself deserves more attention than the privy mark has allowed it.
The obverse moves in close on the Statue of Liberty, her gaze directed outward rather than upward, with the inscriptions UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, IN GOD WE TRUST, and the dual date 1776 ~ 2026. CoinWeek credits the obverse to former Artistic Infusion Program artist Donna Weaver, sculpted by Mint Medallic Artist John P. McGraw. The DW initials appear below the truncation.
The reverse shows Liberty handing her torch to a new generation, the flame trailing behind it, with E PLURIBUS UNUM, HALF DOLLAR, and KNOWLEDGE IS THE ONLY GUARDIAN OF TRUE LIBERTY. CoinWeek attributes the reverse design to Beth Zaiken, sculpted by Mint Medallic Artist Darla Jackson, and traces the inscription to an 1825 letter of James Madison.
Put the privy mark alongside the dual date and the coin carries three years at once: 1776, 2001, and 2026. A reverse about handing knowledge forward, an obverse about looking ahead, and a mark on the obverse asking the viewer to look back. The Mint did not need to explain the pairing. The coin does it.
This is also Liberty’s return to the half dollar for the first time since the Walking Liberty series ended in 1947, with Franklin following in 1948 and Kennedy from 1964. Seventy-nine years is a long absence for an allegory that once defined the denomination.
What the offering costs
Both products are circulating quality, struck at Philadelphia with a P mintmark, in the standard clad composition of 8.33% nickel over a copper balance, 11.340 grams, 30.61 mm across, reeded edge.
Pricing runs from $40 to $100 across the two options, the 20-coin roll at the low end and the 100-coin bag at the high. The arithmetic favours the bag. A roll holds $10 in face value, which puts the buyer at four times face and $2.00 per coin. The bag holds $50 in face value, which is twice face and $1.00 per coin. Anyone ordering for the coins rather than the packaging is better served by the heavier option.
The Mint has published no mintage limit, no product limit, and no household order limit. That means the ordering window, not a stated cap, is the only boundary on this issue, and the final number will not be known until after 3 p.m. Eastern on September 25. Shipping is expected to begin December 3. Collectors accustomed to reading a mintage figure before deciding will have to decide without one.
The point of the exercise
The Mint issues a great many anniversary coins, and most of them commemorate something that went well. This one does not. It asks for remembrance of a morning that a growing share of the country did not live through, and it does so on a coin cheap enough to hand to a child.
Twenty-five years on, that is the argument the Mint is actually making: that a half dollar in a pocket outlasts a ceremony. Whether the rolls and bags sell out or sit is almost beside the point. The 2,983 pieces in New York already did the difficult work, one coin for every name, and the Philadelphia issue exists so that the rest of us can hold the same thing.
Frequently asked questions
What is the 2026 9/11 Enduring Liberty Half Dollar? It is the one year Semiquincentennial half dollar design carrying an added privy mark on the obverse: the date 9-11-01 encircled by the phrase NEVER FORGET. The half dollar returns to the Kennedy portrait in 2027, so the design and the privy mark both end with this year.
How do I order one, and when does the window close? Only through the Mint’s own product page. Pre-orders opened on September 10 and close on September 25 at 3 p.m. Eastern. Shipping is expected to begin December 3.
What do they cost? Prices run from $40 to $100 across the two options, the 20-coin roll at the low end and the 100-coin bag at the high. Per coin, the bag works out at half the price of the roll.
Is there a mintage limit? No. The Mint has published no mintage limit, no product limit, and no household order limit. The closing date, rather than a cap, is what will determine the final number, and that number will not be known until after orders close.
Are these silver? No. They are standard clad half dollars, 8.33% nickel over a copper balance, 11.340 grams and 30.61 mm, struck to circulating quality at Philadelphia with a P mintmark.
Can I buy the ALWAYS REMEMBER version? Not from the Mint. All 2,983 of the West Point struck coins were presented to the National 9/11 Memorial & Museum, and they were never part of a sales offering.
Why 2,983 coins? The Memorial’s names comprise 2,977 people killed on September 11, 2001, and six killed in the World Trade Center bombing of February 26, 1993. The Mint struck one coin for each name.
Will the privy marked coins turn up in pocket change? Do not count on it. The Mint is distributing them through this pre-order rather than through the Federal Reserve, and the standard non-privy marked coins are the ones released into general circulation.
