Allan D'Arcangelo

This spectacular hand signed and numbered mixed media print by renowned American Pop Artist Allan D'Arcangelo, with embossing from the mid 1970s was created as part of a portfolio called "America: the Third Century", commissioned by Mobil Oil Corporation in which 13 artists were commissioned to create works celebrating America's bicentennial. Other editions of this print are in the permanent collection of the Museum of American art and the US State Department's Art in Embassies Program.

The work depicts the great seal of of the United States, with a gorgeous embossed design and the text, Annuit Coeptis is the Latin motto suggested in 1782 by Charles Thomson, the Founding Father chosen by Continental Congress to come up with the final design for the Great Seal of the United States. (The embossing is equally impressive on the verso (back) - though the photograph doesn't capture it well.)

The year this print was created (1975) was the year that the United States Mint began releasing special bicentennial coinage with new designs on the reverse sides of the quarter, half-dollar, and dollar. The Bicentennial Kennedy half-dollar was released on July 7, 1975, and was minted with the image of Independence Hall. The front of all of the bicentennial coins remained the same. The Director of the United States Mint, Mary Brookes, described the importance of the bicentennial coinage in a 1975 press release: “The Bicentennial coins mark the first time in our history that circulating coins have been re-designed in honor of an anniversary of American Independence. The silver specimens, particularly, are quality mementoes of our 200 years of freedom and I hope they will be treasured and admired long after 1976 fades into memory..."