US Mint 2003 National Wildlife Refuge System?

Yep. They're considered tokens, of course, and not coinage; but the US Mint created them. I had to have the whole series when I heard they featured Teddy Roosevelt. He was a true American hero if there ever was one. They don't make presidents like him anymore.

I like the salmon.

No problem on my end, Merc Man. Isn't that the great thing about this fair land, we're all entitled to our opinions? But now I'm compelled to explain my earlier comments. And since I had to write a 25-page paper on the man once, I'm afraid this might take a while. I guess I just happen to admire the man's exploits and courage, the illness he overcame to do what he did in life, his place in history as the guiding force in establishing national parkland, his love of the outdoors and the wild places (he owned a ranch in the Dakota Badlands), his love of the martial sports (he boxed, even though his vision was atrocious, while attending college), his admiration of early naval history and the role it played in freeing the US from British rule during the War of 1812, (he wrote a highly regarded book about it that I read for my college course many, many moons ago), just to name some of the highlights. This next part really impressed me: When he held the position of de facto head of the Department of the Navy, he resigned his post immediately after the Spanish American War broke out and formed a volunteer cavalry regiment called the Rough-riders, as most know, and won the Medal of Honor for his exploits in commanding his (horse-less - the mounts couldn't make it to the battle) cavalry unit in the Battle of San Juan Hill (he was the only member of the regiment astride a horse and spent the day riding up and down the lines commanding his men from the front as every enemy soldier in the vicinity would have been taking potshots at him). Contrast that with the career politicians we put in office- for some unknown reason- today. Most of our recent elected leaders, (Clinton and GWB spring to mind) or potential ones like Romney (who decided missionary work in Paris of all places was a better alternative than risking getting drafted and serving honorably in Vietnam like so many in his generation did), went so far out of the way to get out of military service or war that it's a travesty that they avoided the brand of cowardice for the remainder of their lives. Teddy was also instrumental in reforming the republican party and fighting for the interest of the middle class, workers rights, civil rights, as well as breaking up the political machines of his day and taking on monopolies, like US Steel, to name his biggest and most well-known enemy, by filing dozens of antitrust suits against the too-big-to-fail corporations of his day, just to name some of the more important contributions he made while in office. But there were many more I didn't have time, or room, to list. Did he made mistakes? Definitely. His biggest one, I think, was putting in place policies that paved the way for the FED, a truly unpardonable sin, no matter how good his intentions might have been. I probably should have said that they don't make many men like Roosevelt anymore. Less political and all.

Threads and posts like these make this forum awesome. Thanks for the history lesson traevin

@Merc: when I read your comment, I thought you might have meant FDR. Some people still alive are still miffed by the New Deal/NWPA as it was verging on Socialism back in the day, lol.

If you ever get a chance to read Edmund Morris' biography of TR, you should. TR was a larger than life character that totally the product of the Gilded Age. He was so much the center of attention, the most famous quip about TR is that he had to be the corpse at every funeral, the bride at every wedding. Still, he did a lot of good for this country, including the Renaissance of coinage design.

My pleasure, SDC. The cool thing about this site is being introduced to new wonders :)