Did you miss these SemiQ coins?

Thomas Paine was an underpaid tax collector protesting low wages before Parliament. Benjamin Franklin was Pennsylvania’s colonial envoy objecting to the levy of taxes without representation in the London legislature. Their subsequent friendship changed history.

Coin collectors are discovering the connection between the persuasive pamphleteer and the influential statesman with Littleton’s exclusive 10-coin collection colorized on Kennedy half dollars. We’ve placed these political influencers in a fresh historical context for history buffs – many honored with colorized coins for the first time, including John Jay, John Hancock, Alexander Hamilton, and John Adams’ cousin, Sam.

We’ve also designed an informative display folder for these colorized fifty-cent pieces. If you have a student in your life learning about early American history for the first time, think about ordering this USA 250th anniversary coin collection now while our supplies last. Once the full-color Kennedy half dollars are sold out, this limited-edition series ends.

When in Washington, D.C.

Despite his historical standing as a Founding Father, Paine, writer of the influential pamphlets Common Sense and The American Crisis, never appeared in any civic paintings. But most of the signers of the Declaration of Independence did.

Inked on the back of $2 notes is John Trumball’s famous masterpiece. Capitol visitors see the actual painting when they take the guided tour. The 18’ by 12’ composition shows the Committee of Five presenting their draft of the Declaration to John Hancock and Charles Thomson as other members of the Second Continental Congress look on. Littleton Coin focused on the committee as a backdrop for this USA 250 souvenir Showpak®.  

Guided tours of the Capitol’s interior also take you to the House of Representatives’ East Grand Stairway. Secured to a wall is the massive 30’ by 20’ painting relating to another one of America’s founding documents, The Constitution of the United States of America. The painter was magazine illustrator Howard Chandler Christy.

In this cropped section you see Constitutional Convention President George Washington standing on the dais; he was called out of retirement to mediate the debate. Convention Secretary William Jackson in a red jacket is at the center, holds up four fingers as he counts the votes. James Madison, the document’s lead framer regarded as “the Father of the Constitution”, is at Jackson’s left elbow. Seated in the foreground is Benjamin Franklin in a gray suit, with Alexander Hamilton leaning in towards him.

In 1940, two years after the sesquicentennial (150) of the Constitution’s signing, Chandler was commissioned to paint the famous convention scene. The document itself had been subjected to a robust three-and-a-half-month debate and ratification before it was formalized on September 17, 1787 in Philadelphia.

For the Constitution’s Article II Section 1, the framers needed a term that implied authority without hereditary power or divine sovereignty. With the other two branches labeled as legislative and judicial, the word ‘executive’ was chosen for the third. Here’s a quick list of our first five presidents’ better-known executive actions:

• George Washington established the president’s advisory panel known today as the Cabinet
• John Adams chose diplomacy over a naval war in the Caribbean with France
• Thomas Jefferson purchased the Louisiana Territory from France
• James Madison secured our nation’s maritime rights during the War of 1812
• James Monroe instituted a foreign policy to keep Europe from developing the Western Hemisphere

Want copies of the Constitution and the Declaration? We’ve bundled them into this nifty coins and note set that’s perfect for gift giving – especially if the recipient was born in this century! And yes, that’s Trumball’s painting engraved on the back of the bill!

Your Gift Closet

Speaking of gifts, this handsome three coin dollar set celebrating American ideals has been delicately layered in 24k gold and encapsulated to protect each finish. Color was selectively, and carefully, applied to each obverse so the gold on the aspirational words in god we trust and patriot, liberty and freedom shine above each symbolic image designed by Littleton’s artists. This 24k-layered set makes a memorable gift, whether for a promotion, as an acknowledgement or for a friendship founded on shared patriotism and love of country.

But, Christmas is coming! The the field on this beautiful 2026 American Silver Eagle was enhanced by the colors of the U.S. flag, light from the rising sun and Littleton’s own USA 250th anniversary logo. It will make a nice surprise in someone’s stocking. Or, it can be part of a Secret Santa exchange as this historic 250th anniversary year draws to a close!

So, too, any of Littleton’s 250th challenge coins. That’s what I turned to when I wanted to honor my American Revolutionary patriot. Absent family diaries, published interviews given after the War for Independence, or obituaries, I have few insights into what my ancestor thought about seceding from the British Empire and starting a new country.

But, like most Founding Fathers, he was a generational descendant (fourth to be exact) of an original settler who landed in 1640. So, I turned to historical events to find some kind of meaningful context.

A farmer in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, he took up arms as a Minuteman for the 1775 Battle of Concord where “the shot heard around the world” happened. Unlike his younger brother, who also enlisted but was killed during the Siege of Boston on Plowed Hill in Somerville, he survived. It’s a different kind of 250th anniversary coin, but the versatile Gadsden Flag Challenge Coin reverse design met my goal.

It’s based on Benjamin Franklin’s 1753 political cartoon showing the now-iconic segmented snake and the famous rallying message: join or die. Twelve years later, the simple, but highly effective sketch started appearing in colonial newspapers after passage of the 1765 Stamp Act. That year, the man who would become my five-times grandfather was 18. Ten years later, he took up a rifle to join the colonial counterattack against the British at Concord.

Decades later, a Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) descendant hosted a graveside ceremony to place a bronze marker acknowledging his contribution. As it ensured my freedoms 250 years later, I added the encapsulated challenge coin to honor him in 2026.

In the comments section below, you’re invited to share how you are honoring one of your patriots during the historic Semiquincentennnial of our nation’s founding.

SOURCES

Baskind, Samantha. The Story Behind One of the Most-Mocked Paintings in U.S. History. Smithsonian Magazine. July/August 2022. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/howard-chandler-christy-signing-constitution-mocked-180980344/

Center for the Study of the American Constitution. Founder of the Month NO. 9: THOMAS PAINE (1737-1809). 05 2014. Accessed June 1, 2026. https://archive.csac.history.wisc.edu/fotm_0614_thomas_paine.pdf

Foner, Philip S. “Thomas Paine: British-American author.” Britannica. Accessed June 4, 2026. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Thomas-Paine

National Archives. Milestone Documents: Monroe Doctrine (1823). Accessed May 29, 2026. https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/monroe-doctrine

National Constitution Center. The story behind the Join or Die snake cartoon. May 9, 2024. https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/the-story-behind-the-join-or-die-snake-cartoon

Weiner Elementary School, Weiner AR. Howard Christy. Accessed May 28, 2026. http://www.weinerelementary.org/christy—constitution-day.html