2007-P John Adams Presidential Dollar : A Collector’s Guide

By Charles Morgan and Hubert Walker for CoinWeek Notes ….
 

Officially released on May 17, the 2007-P John Adams Presidential Dollar was part of the strongest year of the entire Presidential Dollar series – the first four presidents arguably among the most famous. The second of those four, John Adams is the only one not from Virginia and the only one-termer. Lest that suggest his Administration was a failure, John Adams was nevertheless a significant president and an important statesman who had a major impact on the founding of the country and its defense.

John Adams – Life and Legacy

Founding Father John Adams was born on October 30, 1735, in Braintree (now part of Quincy) Massachusetts, to farmer and church deacon John Adams, Sr. and his wife, Susanna Boylston Adams. An indifferent student in his youth, Adams Jr. nonetheless went to Harvard starting in 1751. By 1758, he had earned his law degree and began working as a lawyer in 1759. In 1764, Adams married his third cousin Abigail Smith, and over the course of their marriage had six children – including future sixth President John Quincy Adams.

Adams became a leader in colonial opposition to the Stamp Act of 1765, which was a direct tax on the colonists to pay for British troops on American soil, ostensibly to protect against the French. There were many legal and political problems with this, but the views of Adams and other activists can be reduced to the motto “No Taxation without Representation.” Amidst this growing British interference in American affairs, Adams began writing about colonial politics and newspapers.

Rising to the top of the legal field in Boston, Adams gained some notoriety by defending the British sentries accused of killing five American colonists in the Boston Massacre that took place on March 5, 1770. Despite his firm belief that Americans were being mistreated by the Crown, he thought that all men were entitled to a vigorous defense in front of a jury of their peers. Most of the soldiers were acquitted.

Over the next few years, Great Britain doubled down on its moves against colonial independence. While there were already radicals like his cousin Samuel Adams who advocated for full independence, reformers like John Adams were only radicalized by Parliament’s aggressive actions. After colonists dumped thousands of pounds of tea into Boston Harbor in protest of the Tea Act of 1773–the famous Boston Tea Party–Adams wrote about the vandalism in glowing terms. And after the Intolerable Acts of 1774, John Adams served as a delegate from Massachusetts to the First Continental Congress. After the Battles of Lexington and Concord in 1775, Adams understood that the time for reconciliation and compromise was over.

During the War for Independence, John Adams played a key role in the fight. He nominated George Washington to serve as Commander-in-Chief of the fledgling Army. He also organized and served on the committee that wrote the Declaration of Independence and, while he deferred to Thomas Jefferson for the actual writing, it was Adams’ skills as a lawyer that won its adoption. To the point of exhaustion and beyond, Adams threw himself into the practical details of maintaining the Revolution.

When Washington became the nation’s first President in 1789, Adams became the country’s first Vice President. After Washington’s two terms in office, Adams was elected President in 1796, serving from 1797 through 1801. The election, the first in United States history to be contested, was vitriolic and partisan, with supporters of Jefferson and Adams exchanging nasty rhetoric at levels the average American believes is a more recent phenomenon. In office, Adams worked to stabilize the foundations of the new republic. Nevertheless, his Administration is arguably best known for a disintegrating relationship with France and the Alien and Sedition Acts, which imprisoned people for criticizing the government. This attack on Liberty motivated Jefferson to voice the first sentiments of secession not even a decade after the Constitution was ratified.

After losing the 1800 election to Jefferson, Adams retired to his Massachusetts home. He refused to comment publicly on the new Administration’s activities, establishing the tradition of former presidents not directly criticizing their successors. John Adams died on July 4, 1826, the same day as his rival but ultimately friend Thomas Jefferson.

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2007-P John Adams Presidential Dollar Market Data and Noteworthy Specimens

Since the 2007-P Adams Presidential Dollar is an ultramodern circulating commemorative coin, the secondary market is far from mature. Therefore, the best place to look for current price trends is eBay – as it is for similar issues.

No auctions for business-strike examples were listed at the time of this analysis in late March 2025; all were for Satin Finish/Specimen strikes, documented below. Raw 2007-P Adams Dollar coins have sold for $2 to $3.50 over the last few months.

Top Population: PCGS MS67 (8, 3/2025), NGC MS69 (2, 3/2025), and CAC MS63 (1, 3/2025).

• PCGS MS68 #12252792: eBay, March 22, 2025, Lot 256801901468 – $11. Satin Finish label. Pos. A on label.
• PCGS MS68: eBay, February 18, 2025, Lot 126939920327 – $7.50. Satin Finish label. Pos. A on label. 1 bid.
• PCGS MS68: eBay, February 5, 2025, Lot 196984623575 – $3.99. Pos. B, Satin Finish on label. 1 bid.
• PCGS MS68: eBay, February 5, 2025, Lot 126914472068 – $3.99. Pos. A, Satin Finish on label. 1 bid.
• PCGS MS68: eBay, January 28, 2025, Lot 186702668909 – $10. Satin Finish label. Pos. B on label.
• PCGS MS68 #12822969: eBay, January 6, 2025, Lot 405450281650 – $5.01. Satin Finish label. Pos. A on label. 2 bids.

Later in the year, the Uncirculated 2007-P John Adams Presidential Dollar was available in the United States Mint’s 2007 Presidential $1 Coin Uncirculated Set. Collectors could buy the eight-coin Presidential $1 Coin Uncirculated Set (Philadelphia and Denver) for $15.95 retail (about $24 in 2025 inflation-adjusted dollars), or the P- and D-mint four–coin sets for $8.95 each (about $13.60 IAD).

An eight-coin set sold on eBay on March 27, 2025, for $16.25. While it has possibly lost value since its initial release, the set is a bargain on the secondary market for collectors of the series.

The 2007-P Adams coin was also available in the 2007-P United States Mint Uncirculated Coin Set.

Design

Obverse

Mint Artistic Infusion Program (AIP) artist Joel Iskowitz adapted American artist John Trumbull’s 1793 portrait of Adams, in which the then-sitting Vice President covered his bald head with a powdered wig. Powdered wigs were slowly losing favor by the late 18th century but remained common amongst the older gentry. Iskowitz gives the top of Adams’ head more detail than exists in the Trumbull painting. So too, with Adams’ shirt.

As is standard for the early Presidential Dollar designs, the inscription at the top of the design is the President’s name, while the inscriptions at the bottom read the ordinal number of the Presidency and the dates of the Administration. For the Adams Dollar, these inscriptions read: JOHN ADAMS | 2nd PRESIDENT | 1797 – 1801. Mint Sculptor-Engraver Charles L. Vickers sculpted Iskowitz’s design. Iskowitz’s designer initials JI appear on the cloth of Adam’s right shoulder (viewer’s left) and Vicker’s CLV initial appears on the cloth of Adam’s left shoulder.

Common Reverse:

Don Everhart’s reverse design features an ant’s-eye view of the Statue of Liberty offset to the left. On the coin, Liberty occupies the bottom right quadrant of the coin, her extended elbow being the coin’s center point. The design is framed by a thin inner circle, which separates the graphic design from the legend UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Beneath Liberty’s extended torch-bearing arm is the denomination $1. This is the common reverse design for all Presidential Dollar coins.

Edge:

The edge of the Presidential Dollar is lettered and features the mottos IN GOD WE TRUST and E PLURIBUS UNUM, the mintmark, the year of issuance, and 13 five-pointed stars. This edge inscription may be oriented facing the obverse (Position A) or the reverse (Position B).

Designers

Artist and illustrator Joel Iskowitz joined the U.S. Mint’s design staff in 2005 and worked there until 2018. He currently takes part in the Mint’s Artistic Infusion Program (AIP) (View Designer’s Profile).

After a lengthy career as a sculptor for the Franklin Mint, Charles L. Vickers joined the U.S. Mint’s Engraving Department in December 2003. He retired in March 2016 and passed away on December 30, 2022, after a period of ill health (View Designer’s Profile).

Don Everhart joined the United States Mint in 2004 after a long and successful career as a sculptor and designer of medals. He retired in 2017 and now participates in the AIP (View Designer’s Profile).

Coin Specifications

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