20 Dollars Surrender at Appomattox Courthouse

Liberia's commemorative program of the late 1990s and early 2000s was aggressively commercial — the country issued hundreds of foreign-themed coins with no domestic relevance, produced almost entirely for the international collector market by private minting contractors. This piece marks the April 9, 1865 surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia, when Grant allowed Confederate officers to retain their sidearms and soldiers to keep their horses for the spring plowing — terms considered generous enough that Lee reportedly said they would do much toward conciliating our people.