United States of America The 175th Anniversary of the Botanic Gardens 1984 P BU Silver 1 Dollar 38.1mm (26.73 grams) 0.900 Silver Reference: KM# 278 | Engraver: Edgar Z. Steever, William C. Cousins LIBERTY ONE DOLLAR 1997 P IN GOD WE TRUST UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, The facade of the National Botanic Garden in Washington, DC. UNITED STATES BOTANIC GARDEN 1820-1995 E PLURIBUS UNUM, A single rose with a garland of roses encircling the rim.
Coin Notes: The 1997 Botanic Gardens Silver Dollar was issued for the National Botanic Garden in Washington, DC. Based on the inscriptions the occasion was for the 165th anniversary, which took place two years prior in 1995. Collectors took focus on the 1997 Botanic Gardens Coinage and Currency Set, which included a matte finish 1997-P Jefferson Nickel. Because only 25,000 of the sets were sold, this nickel enjoys a level of scarcity that has supported high prices. The commemorative offering had a maximum authorized mintage of 50,000 coins across all options. Final combined sales fell below the half-way mark.
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The United States Botanic Garden (USBG) is a botanic garden on the grounds of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., near Garfield Circle.
The Botanic Garden is supervised by the Congress through the Architect of the Capitol, who is responsible for maintaining the grounds of the United States Capitol. The USBG is open every day of the year, including federal holidays. It is the oldest continually-operating botanic garden in the United States.
The Columbian Institute for the Promotion of Arts and Sciences in Washington, DC first suggested the creation of the Botanic Garden in 1816. In 1820 it was given land by an act of Congress. The land was located west of the Capitol extending from First Street to Third Street between Pennsylvania and Maryland Avenues. The facility ceased to operate in 1837 when the society stopped holding meetings. However it was re-instituted in 1842 when the Wilkes expedition of the South Seas brought back a collection of plants.
In 1838, Charles Wilkes set out on the United States Exploring Expedition commissioned by Congress to circumnavigate the globe and explore the Pacific Ocean. During this trip (the “Wilkes Expedition”), Wilkes collected live and dried specimens of plants and was one of the first to use wardian cases to maintain live plants on long voyages. Wilkes returned in 1842 with a massive collection of plants previously unknown in the United States.
The dried specimens comprised the core of what is now the National Herbarium, an herbarium curated by the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History. The live specimens and seeds came to be housed in the Old Patent Office greenhouse, and were cared for there until 1850. At that time, a botanic garden was built to house the collection in front of the Capitol, where the Capitol reflecting pool is now located.
Abolitionist Photius Fisk conducted scientific exploration of minerals and plants. While he was U.S. Navy chaplain on the Frigate Raritan in South America and the Pacific he collected seeds and rare plants for the United States Botanic Garden. Some of the species he gathered were the vanilla plant, dendrobium, cattleya, epidendrum, stanhopea, and several other named and unnamed species. Most of the flowers were from Brazil. He also obtained the rare butterfly flower Oncidium Papilio from Saint Thomas which he carefully guarded. Photius Fisk kept careful notes of his observations of the plants. In February 1853, he immediately traveled to Washington and gave the plants to the superintendent and botanist of the United States Botanic Garden W. D. Breckenridge.
In 1933, the building was moved to its present location, just to the southwest of the Capitol, bordered by Maryland Avenue on the north, First Street on the east, Independence Avenue on the south, and Third Street on the west.
The building was closed for renovations on September 1, 1997, and reopened to the public on December 11, 2001. At the time of closure for renovation, plants in the collection were either placed in storage at the USBG Production Facility, retired to greenhouses in Florida, or composted.
The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles (9.8 million km2), the United States is the world’s third- or fourth-largest country by total area and
slightly smaller than the entire continent of Europe’s 3.9 million square miles (10.1 million km2). With a population of over 325 million people, the U.S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D.C., and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital’s federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico. The State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U.S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The extremely diverse geography, climate, and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world’s 17 megadiverse countries.
Paleo-Indians migrated from Siberia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century. The United States emerged from the thirteen British colonies established along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the colonies following the French and Indian War led to the American Revolution, which began in 1775, and the subsequent Declaration of Independence in 1776. The war ended in 1783 with the United States becoming the first country to gain independence from a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, with the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, being ratified in 1791 to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. The United States embarked on a vigorous expansion across North America throughout the 19th century, acquiring new territories, displacing Native American tribes, and gradually admitting new states until it spanned the continent by 1848. During the second half of the 19th century, the Civil War led to the abolition of slavery. By the end of the century, the United States had extended into the Pacific Ocean, and its economy, driven in large part by the Industrial Revolution, began to soar. The Spanish-American War and World War I confirmed the country’s status as a global military power. The United States emerged from World War II as a global superpower, the first country to develop nuclear weapons, the only country to use them in warfare, and a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union competed in the Space Race, culminating with the 1969 moon landing. The end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the world’s sole superpower.
The United States is the world’s oldest surviving federation. It is a federal republic and a representative democracy, “in which majority rule is tempered by minority rights protected by law”. The United States is a founding member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States (OAS), and other international organizations. The United States is a highly developed country, with the world’s largest economy by nominal GDP and second-largest economy by PPP, accounting for approximately a quarter of global GDP. The U.S. economy is largely post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge-based activities, although the manufacturing sector remains the second-largest in the world. The United States is the world’s largest importer and the second largest exporter of goods, by value. Although its population is only 4.3% of the world total, the U.S. holds 33% of the total wealth in the world, the largest share of global wealth concentrated in a single country. The United States ranks among the highest nations in several measures of socioeconomic performance, including human development, per capita GDP, and productivity per person, while experiencing a substantial amount of income and wealth inequality. The United States is the foremost military power in the world, making up a third of global military spending, and is a leading political, cultural, and scientific force internationally.
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