5 Dollars Franklin Pierce

Franklin Pierce is among the least-issued subjects in American presidential coin series, which makes his appearance here worth noting — not for rarity, but for the political irony. Pierce's presidency is broadly regarded by historians as among the most damaging in the antebellum period; his signing of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 effectively reopened the slavery question and accelerated the path to civil war. Liberia, founded by freed American slaves and their descendants, commemorating Pierce on legal tender currency is a peculiar editorial choice that the Central Bank apparently made without comment.