1 Dollar Libertas Americana medal

The Libertas Americana is not a Liberian coin at all — it is a French medal struck in Paris in 1782, designed by Benjamin Franklin to commemorate American independence and the twin military victories at Saratoga and Yorktown. Franklin personally supervised the design and distributed examples to the French court. Liberia's appropriation of the motif carries no historical connection to either the original medal or Franklin's diplomatic mission; it is a bullion vehicle dressed in borrowed iconography.