Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico is a beautiful island floating in the Caribbean Sea. It is not one of the U.S. states, yet it is unquestionably American soil, and the people who live here are U.S. citizens. Its official status is that of a “U.S. Commonwealth,” a unique position in which it belongs to the United States while also having its own government and powers of self-rule.

The reverse of the coin depicts a sentry box—a “garita”—of El Morro fort (Castillo San Felipe del Morro) together with a maga flower. Beside it is the nickname “Isla del Encanto,” which means “Isle of Enchantment.”

The little sentry box with its rounded roof is where soldiers long ago kept watch over the sea, and today it has become the most representative image symbolizing Puerto Rico. Having endured hundreds of years, the fort’s sentry box quietly tells of the long history and resilience this island has passed through.

Puerto Rico became a U.S. territory in 1898. As a result of the Spanish-American War fought that year, this island—which until then had been Spanish land—came into the United States’ embrace. That is also why traces of the Spanish language and Spanish culture remain strong here to this day.

With a fort’s sentry box and a southern flower placed side by side on a single coin, it conveys both the Caribbean sunshine and a long history at once. Just by looking at this small picture, you can faintly sense why it earned the nickname “Isle of Enchantment.”