New York

New York often comes to mind first as the city of New York (New York City), but it is in fact a large state that embraces broad rivers, lakes, and harbors. Its nickname is “The Empire State,” which can be rendered in Korean as “the state of empire,” carrying the meaning of a place where commerce and people gathered on a great scale. In the 50 State Quarters series, it was issued as the eleventh coin.

The figure at the center of the coin’s reverse is the Statue of Liberty, which nearly everyone has seen at least once. Beside it are engraved eleven stars, which represent the fact that New York was the eleventh state to ratify the U.S. Constitution. And over the outline of New York State are drawn lines tracing the Hudson River and the Erie Canal.

The Statue of Liberty was long the symbol that first welcomed people newly arriving in America by ship. The phrase written below the coin, “Gateway to Freedom,” holds precisely that meaning. It is the story of how the harbor of New York became, for countless people, a door into a new life.

New York joined the Union on July 26, 1788, becoming, in order, the eleventh state. Thanks to its geography of broad waterways and harbors, people and goods came and went actively, and that flow grew New York into one of America’s foremost gateways.

Seeing the goddess statue and stars, the river and canal all held together on a single small coin, we naturally sense that New York regarded itself as “the door connecting the world and America.”