War of 1812 Colorized Coins, 10 Half Dollars

The War of 1812 began in June 1812, when President James Madison and Congress declared war on Great Britain. It grew out of years of tension over British trade restrictions and the conflict between settlers and Native nations on the western frontier. That tension had already led to one battle in 1811. William Henry Harrison, then governor of Indiana Territory, fought a force led by followers of the Shawnee leader Tecumseh’s brother at Tippecanoe, and the victory made him a national figure.

Once war began, fighting broke out along the frontier and the Canadian border. On August 15, 1812, soldiers and settlers leaving Fort Dearborn, at what is now Chicago, were attacked by Potawatomi warriors. Captain William Wells, who had lived among the Miami, led a group of Miami to escort them and was killed in the fight. In October, General Stephen Van Rensselaer led American troops across the Niagara River at Queenston Heights, where British, Canadian, and Mohawk forces defeated them. The British commander, Isaac Brock, was killed in the battle.

At sea, the small U.S. Navy won a series of famous single-ship fights. In August 1812, USS Constitution defeated HMS Guerriere, and in December it defeated HMS Java. In February 1813, USS Hornet sank HMS Peacock. Those victories lifted American spirits in a war that was otherwise going badly. Each of the ten coins in this collection shows one of these people or battles, from the president who declared the war to the ships that won its best-known sea fights.