COINS FOR CONGRESS ON NATIONAL IMMIGRANT DAY

   

Mr. Kotovsky happens to be a first-generation American born of a Lithuanian mother and Ukrainian father. The United States' immigrant heritage is extremely important to him. So, in honor of National Immigrant Day on Oct. 28, Mr. Kotovsky set out to remind politicians about where they come from by sending every U.S. senator and House of Representatives member a commemorative half-dollar coin that he believes is emblematic of that legacy.

The message is short and sweet: We're a nation of immigrants, he told the Post-Gazette. I think the diversification of immigrants made us the greatest country in the world. I would just like people not to forget that.

   

He and Tracy Kosylo, Modular International's marketing manager, spent much of Monday, Oct. 11, putting together envelopes with the coins and letters that Mr. Kotovsky wrote to each senator and representative that they want to reach all those politicians by National Immigrant Day.

In 1986, the U.S. Mint issued a series of commemorative half-dollar coins with the Statue of Liberty on the front and a family of four on the back standing beneath an inscription that reads: United States of America: A Nation of Immigrants. Mr. Kotovsky bought enough of those coins to gift them to all 100 senators and 435 House members.

Mr. Kotovsky's team has been told the coins will be accepted upon arrival, and that it was a better idea to send them individually than in bulk. He hopes that even the most staunchly anti-immigration House and Senate members will take a moment to think critically about what his gesture represents.

I thought it might be interesting to remind people of what we're all about ..., he said. I just think we have to remember who we are.

I think this country was so great because of the immigrants that came here and what that did, Mr. Kotovsky said. We have problems here ... and we'll have to find a way to deal with that. But it's still the greatest country, in my humble opinion.

   

To read the complete article, see:
He's coined a way to tell Congress that we're 'a nation of immigrants' (https://www.post-gazette.com/life/goodness/2021/10/21/brighton-heights-pittsburgh-modular-international-irwin-kotovsky-yajagoff-media-goodness/stories/202110240006)

For more information on the coin, see:
Statue of Liberty Half Dollar (https://www.usmint.gov/coins/coin-medal-programs/commemorative-coins/statue-of-liberty-half)

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web