Owner Comments:
Known as Old Rough n Ready, Zachary Taylor served from 1849 to 1850. Taylor came to the public eye during the war with Mexico, and was one eleven generals who would go on to serve as President of the United States. The slavery issue was beginning to bubble over, an issue he was fairly neutral about, feeling that Congress should determine the correct solution to the issue. Congress proposed the Compromise of 1850, and Taylor changed his views, stating that California should be allowde into the Union as a free state without having to make concessions to the slave states. When there were threats of succession from the southern states, Taylor threatened to hang the troublemakers, starting with his son-in-law, Mississippi Senator Jefferson Davis. Soon after, during the July 4th celebration of 1850, Taylor took ill, and 5 days later died. There were whispers that he had been poisoned with arsenic to eliminate his opposition. This mystery was solved, however, in 1991, historians convinced his descendants to allow his remains to be disinterred and tested. Tests proved conclusively that he died from a form of cholera, and not poison as suspected.
Obverse Designer: Don Everhart
Reverse Designer: Don Everhart
Release Date: November 19, 2009
Mintage: 2,800,298
Numismatic Highlights
- None