A SALUTE TO WEST POINT

By Jon Blackwell

George Washington called it the "key to the continent." Gen. George Patton worshiped it as "a holy place." Charles Dickens paid it a visit and exclaimed, "Any ground more beautiful can hardly be."

For 200 years, the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, has been turning out the Army leaders who've fought America's battles--from the War of 1812 to the War on Terrorism.

This spring, the storied school on the breathtaking heights of the Hudson River celebrates the bicentennial of its 1802 founding with full military pageantry. Gray-clad cadets will march with bicentennial flags, generals will pay tribute to the dead of past wars, and all will join in singing "The Corps," the USMA anthem that begins:

"The long gray line of us stretches

Through the years of a century told ..."

Amid all the military tradition on display at West Point, it's easy to forget--unless you're a coin collector--that this site also has huge significance for American numismatics.

West Point is home to one of the four mints today in the United States, along with Philadelphia, Denver and San Francisco, and is second in importance only to Fort Knox as a storage vault for U.S. Treasury gold.

The West Point Mint has been the sole production facility for the Treasury's American Eagle proof and uncirculated bullion coins since their introduction in 1986. All U.S. gold commemorative coins, as well as some silver commemoratives, are minted at West Point.

Appropriately enough, the newest commemorative silver dollar--which honors the West Point bicentennial--was minted at...West Point.

The coin's obverse features a cadet color guard in a parade exercise with the academy's Washington Hall and Cadet Chapel in the background. The reverse depicts the USMA's coat of arms--the Attic helmet of Pallas Athena over a sword. A $10 surcharge from each coin purchased will go toward academic and military programs for the Corps of Cadets.

The new coin was due to be unveiled--along with a West Point bicentennial stamp--at the academy on March 16. That date is the 200th anniversary of the Military Academy's creation by an act of Congress signed by President Thomas Jefferson.

"It's an exciting tribute--and a unique one, since I don't think there have been many coins commemorating the very place where they're minted," said Andrea Hamburger, a civilian spokesman for West Point.

The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 gave solemn new perspective to the jobs being done at both the USMA and the West Point Mint. Within an hour of the first plane strike against the World Trade Center, Hamburger said, military police barred all walk-in visitors from entering the post.

West Point has had its share of heroes in the Afghanistan war, too, Hamburger said. Capt. Jason Amerine, who led the Green Beret unit that suffered three deaths when it came under friendly fire Dec. 5, was USMA Class of '93.

Amerine suffered shrapnel wounds in the accidental bomb drop while leading the defense of an Afghan town from attacking Taliban forces. He later told reporters: "I don't want these guys to be remembered as people who died in an accident. They saved a town from being slaughtered. They're all heroes."

Another West Pointer, Gen. Wayne Downing of the Class of '62, came out of retirement last October to coordinate the White House's worldwide campaign to smash terrorist organizations. As national director of this program and deputy national security adviser for combating terrorism, Downing is described by the Washington Post as President Bush's "secret weapon" in the terror war.

National Guard soldiers from New York's 69th Regiment have been patrolling the gates of West Point since November. And that means anyone going to the mint must pass through an extra buffer of security.

Security at the West Point Mint had already been tighter than at any other U.S. coinage plant before Sept. 11, due to the huge reserves of gold bullion there.

Hidden away at the foot of a ski slope where cadets practice their winter sports, the West Point Mint is located on a four-acre site deeded from the Department of Defense, near the academy's Washington Gate (formerly Old North Gate). The building is surrounded on four corners by sentries standing guard in turrets. The walls of the squat one-story building are 3-foot-thick reinforced concrete without windows. A 9-foot steel fence surrounds the building, and floodlights illuminate the perimeter at night.

Inside the building--and within its drill-proof, time-locked vault--are 54 million troy ounces of gold, worth $20 billion, which make up part of the U.S. reserve. (There were 147 million ounces of gold at Fort Knox as of Dec. 31.)

Historically, the West Point site also has been the Treasury's main depository for silver--it was even called the "Fort Knox of Silver" at one time. However, that precious metal is now stored at West Point only in quantities needed for conversion into coins.

Bullion coins minted at West Point include the four American Eagle gold pieces (one-ounce, half-ounce, quarter-ounce and tenth-ounce), each with an obverse adapted from Augustus Saint-Gaudens' classic Liberty portrait; the one-ounce silver Eagle with Adolph A. Weinman's Walking Liberty obverse; and, since 1997, four platinum Eagles in the same four sizes as the gold.

Notable commemoratives to come out of West Point since the revival of that series in 1982 begin with the 1984 Olympic eagle ($10 gold piece). That was the first coin ever to bear the "W" mint mark.

West Point also has coined:

<BULLET>The Statue of Liberty half eagle ($5 gold piece) of 1986, designed by then-Mint Chief Engraver Elizabeth Jones.

<BULLET>The Olympic $5 gold piece of 1988 featuring the head of Nike, the goddess of victory--a design also fashioned by Jones.

<BULLET>The $5 gold piece honoring Jackie Robinson in 1997.

<BULLET>A $10 coin marking the bicentennial of the Library of Congress in 2000. With a platinum ring surrounding gold, it was the U.S. Mint's first bimetallic issue.

<BULLET>The $5 gold coin for the Capitol Visitors Center in 2001.

<BULLET>The $5 gold coin for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

Manufacturing coins at West Point is much like the minting process elsewhere, said Mint spokesman Michael White. Planchets (coin blanks) arrive from metal fabricators, are tested for purity and are stamped with obverse and reverse dies in an automated process.

However, West Point is dealing with coins of high purity--.9999-fine silver and platinum and 24-karat gold--instead of the base-metal alloys used in regular-issue coins. As a result, the coining process moves along much more slowly. Where the Philadelphia Mint can churn out 800 coins a minute using fully automated machines, coins are hand-fed into the presses at the West Point Mint and the process moves at a more human pace, White said.

When it comes to platinum, White said, proofs may require a remarkably high number of strikes--as many as nine--to ensure the proper detail. Most proof coins of regular denominations need just two strikes.

The fear of a worldwide computer meltdown in 1999 led to demand for a spectacular number of West Point-minted gold American Eagles--5.1 million. But in 2000, the number declined to a more normal 463,000, White said. That number climbed to 709,000 in 2001.

In 2001, the West Point facility also minted 8.8 million silver American Eagles and 114,800 platinum Eagles, White said.

The staff at the West Point Mint numbers about 150, under the direction of plant manager Ellen McCullom. Until the title was abolished in 1996, the job of superintendent at the mint had been filled by presidential appointment.

West Point is the newest of the four U.S. mints--it was designated as such only in 1988--but its place in U.S. history goes back much further. It is, in fact, the oldest continuously garrisoned fort in America, dating back to 1778.

How this quiet, scenic place came to take on so much significance can be explained by simple geography: West Point is a highlands plateau that commands the west bank of the Hudson River. At the time of the Revolutionary War, the Hudson was the most vital waterway in the American interior--and by moving up from British-occupied New York City, the Redcoats could cut the fledgling United States in two.

General Washington grasped the spot's strategic importance and sent Thaddeus Kosciuszko, a hero of the Battle of Saratoga, to fortify it in 1778. Continental soldiers dragged a 150-ton chain across the river to block enemy boats and constructed a fearsome network of forts and gun emplacements on the heights.

All that defensive effort nearly met with disaster without a single shot being fired: The notorious turncoat Benedict Arnold tried to betray West Point to the British, but his plan was foiled when British spy John Andre was captured and hanged.

Washington, who camped at West Point in 1779, long favored establishing a national military academy at the site, where the art of engineering could be taught to future generations. But it was not until 1802 that Jefferson approved the plan--with strict assurances that the school would represent a democratic society and not a snobbish elite. Under an 1843 law, there must be at least one cadet from every congressional district, thus making West Point a truly national institution.

The first Corps of Cadets numbered a mere 10. West Point's real growth would not come until 1817, when Col. Sylvanus Thayer, "Father of the Military Academy," took over as superintendent. He raised academic standards, introduced a code of conduct and established civil engineering as the basis of an education.

West Pointers ended up being largely responsible for the early Republic's engineering feats--bridges, dams, harbors, roads--and for exploring the wilderness of the West. USMA graduates mapped unknown rivers, blazed pioneer trails, built the Capitol dome and dug the Panama Canal.

Two of the most celebrated West Point cadets never graduated.

Edgar Allan Poe was expelled in 1831 for "gross neglect of duty" and went on to a life of troubled genius as poet of "The Raven" and other lyric verse and author of chilling tales of mystery and terror.

James Abbot McNeill Whistler, the future painter, got booted in 1854 for being too impudent in engineering drawing class. Assigned to draw a bridge, he insisted on drawing three boys fishing from the side of it; when ordered to erase them, he then drew three little headstones by the river bank. (Interestingly, while everyone has heard of the painting "Whistler's Mother," few know that Whistler's father was a distinguished USMA graduate who was commissioned by a Russian czar to build the first railroad from Moscow to St. Petersburg.)

The Mexican War of 1846-48 established West Point as a source of exceptional military talent, with Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee among the U.S. officers to distinguish themselves in that conflict. Those two, along with many others, would return to fight in the Civil War--this time on opposite sides. A total of 55 Civil War battles featured West Point graduates commanding the armies on both sides.

Lee--who served as superintendent of the academy from 1852-55--would lead a Confederate army that boasted fellow West Pointers Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, J.E.B. Stuart and George Pickett (dead last in his class of 1846, but first at Pickett's Charge in the Battle of Gettysburg). The Union's USMA generals, in addition to Grant, included William Tecumseh Sherman, Philip Sheridan and John Sedgwick. Sedgwick was memorialized at West Point with a statue after being cut down by a sniper in the Battle of Spotsylvania. His last words: "They could not hit an elephant at this distance."

In World War I, West Pointer John Pershing commanded the American Expeditionary Army, while members of the Class of 1915 were among the first to fight in the trenches of France. That Class of '15 would come to be known as the "Class the Stars Fell On": 59 of 164 graduates would reach the rank of brigadier general or higher, among them Dwight D. Eisenhower and Omar Bradley.

Other storied West Pointers who gained fame in World War II included Henry "Hap" Arnold of the Army Air Force; "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell; Leslie Groves, leader of the Manhattan Project to build the atomic bomb; and Douglas MacArthur, most decorated officer in U.S. history. MacArthur, the academy superintendent from 1919-22 and first in his class of 1903, still casts his stern gaze over the academy in the form of a bronze statue.

West Point's military fame reached a peak in World War II--and so did its athletic excellence. The Army football teams of 1944-46 were three-time national champions with their Heisman Award-winning backfield of "Doc" Blanchard and Glenn Davis-- "Mr. Inside" and "Mr. Outside." Army hasn't won a championship since then, but it was nationally ranked as recently as 1996. And the 112-year-old Army-Navy Game remains a classic sports rivalry that the nation tunes to every December.

The class of incoming cadets--known as "plebes" in their first year--nearly doubled to 4,400 at the onset of the Vietnam War in the 1960s, and has remained steady at 4,000 since.

In recent years, the academy has begun to reflect more closely the growing diversity of America. It admitted women beginning with the Class of 1980, and women, blacks and Asian-Americans all have won the honor of first captain of the Corps of Cadets. Some notable modern-day grads include Norman Schwarzkopf, commander of U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf War of 1991, and Pete Dawkins, the 1959 Heisman winner, who became CEO of Primerica.

Cadets who march the parade grounds in their dress grays or in camouflage fatigues are literally walking in the footsteps of history. Around them are monuments both scenic and serious: Trophy Point, with its cannon overlooking the Hudson; Battle Monument, the largest shaft of polished granite in the Western Hemisphere, inscribed with 2,230 names of Civil War dead; the Museum and North Barracks in their Gothic styles; Flirtation Walk, the tree-shaded pathway where many a cadet has strolled with a sweetheart.

West Point has its ties to numismatic history, too. A statue of West Pointer Patton, binoculars in hand, was done by James Earle Fraser, the sculptor also responsible for the Buffalo nickel. The bronze doors of the library feature an elaborate relief carving--depicting the whole of American history from Columbus to the 1960s--done by Fraser's wife Laura, a noted coin artist in her own right.

Laura Gardin Fraser designed several U.S. commemorative coins and is ruefully recalled as the artist whose design for the new Washington quarter in 1932, while judged to be the winner in a national competition, was rejected without explanation by the Treasury.

One of West Point's traditions also involves coins: Upon graduation, a West Point officer is supposed to present a silver dollar to the first enlisted soldier who gives a salute.

And, of course, the mint at West Point is a piece of numismatic history as well.

Its roots go back to 1938, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt had the fortress-like facility built to store 70 tons of government silver. West Point was an easy choice: It had excellent security because of the military presence already there, as well as proximity to the financial centers of New York City.

For most of its history, the Treasury facility was not a mint in name or in fact. It was a depository for silver and later for gold as well, run as an arm of the Mint's Assay Office in New York. Not until 1973, when a shortage of cents began to raise demand, did the Treasury decide to establish a new coin-making facility at West Point.

The facility began manufacturing cents on Aug. 1, 1974; Bicentennial quarters in 1976; and regular quarters from 1977 to 1979. During that period, however, the Mint declined to add a "W" mark to the coins, making them indistinguishable from Philadelphia-minted cents and quarters that also bore no mint mark. The official reason given was to discourage hoarding of novel "W"-marked coins--but angry hobbyists saw it as a slight against them and against numismatic tradition in general.

Regardless of the controversy, the Mint cranked out cents at the rate of 7.2 million a day, along with a few other notable curiosities. In 1974, 10 million 1-centisimo coins of Panama were produced, and in the early 1980s gold medallions for the American Arts series were minted here.

The West Point facility gained added stature with the minting of the Olympic $10 gold piece dated 1984 and first produced in 1983. Although the design by engraver Jim Peed was criticized as rather pedestrian--its male and female runner duo were nicknamed "Dick and Jane"--the coin had historic status as the first legal-tender U.S. gold coin since 1933.

Production of circulating coins at the West Point Mint ceased in 1986 as demand for cents declined, but commemoratives continued to be produced there. And, of course, the American Eagle series commenced there that same year.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Military Academy right next door continues to turn out its own product--the leaders of America's future armies. In the War on Terrorism and beyond, they'll be the ones counted on to fulfill the academy's motto of "Duty, Honor, Country."

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