Miami Valley Coin Club

1925 Lexington Commemorative

Saturday, April 19^th, is the 250^th anniversary of “The Shot that was Heard ‘Round the World”, the beginning of 13 colonies fight for freedom from King George III and England. The battle kicked off the American Revolutionary War.

Tensions had been building for many years between residents of the colonies and British authorities. The night before, hundreds of British troops marched from Boston to Concord in order to seize the colonists’ weapons cache.  Paul Revere, and other Sons of Liberty, began their famous rides, giving the colonists time to mobilize against the British. The signal was to be one lantern in the Old North Church if the British were coming by land, and two lanterns if they were coming by sea.

The fighting started off on the Lexington town green, and even today no knows who shot first. When the shooting stopped, eight militiamen lay dead, nine more were wounded. Only one British soldier was wounded.

The British continued on to Concord but the weapons had already been relocated. The militiamen hurried to Concord’s North Bridge and began trading volleys with British soldiers. It wasn’t long before the British troops beat a hasty retreat.

President Calvin Coolidge authorized the 1925 Lexington Commemorative, which celebrates the Sesquicentennial of the battles at Lexington and Concord. The obverse features a Minuteman soldier with his rifle, the reverse features the Old Belfry at Lexington, Massachusetts. 162,099 were struck and only 86 were not sold or distributed.