Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Silver Medal

No one could have predicted that Ulysses S. Grant, the shy son of an Ohio leather tanner, would grow up to be one of the Nation’s greatest Generals and 18th President of the United States. Twice cited for bravery during the Mexican-American War, his aptitude for battle and intellect set him apart from his contemporaries. His success on the battlefield propelled him through the Army’s ranks, eventually earning him the title of Major General of the United States Army. During the Civil War he led the Union Army with the complete confidence of President Abraham Lincoln and on April 9, 1865, General Grant personally accepted the surrender of the Confederacy at Appomattox, officially ending the war of “brother against brother.”

When Grant ran for President in 1868, he was barely contested, and he easily won the 18th Presidency. Grant was determined to follow the late President Lincoln’s policy of reconciliation rather than retribution with the South, believing it to be the only way to preserve the Union he had fought and sacrificed so much for. A staunch abolitionist his whole life, President Grant was greatly concerned with the condition of former slaves and the racism they faced in both the North and the South, at times enacting martial law to combat Ku Klux Klan terrorism. In 1870, he signed the 15th Amendment, giving Black men the right to vote, but struggled to see it enforced as Southern States countered with Jim Crow laws. In 1875, he announced in a public letter that he would not seek a third term, believing it to be his moral duty to stick to the two-term precedent set by George Washington.

This stunning Presidential Silver Medal commemorates Ulysses S. Grant’s Presidency in 99.9% fine silver. It was expertly crafted by the United States Mint.