C005159

Round shaped coin, brass in color, 1 3/4 inches in diameter.

USS Constitution is a wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate of the United States Navy, named by President George Washington after the Constitution of the United States of America. The ship is the world's oldest commissioned naval vessel afloat.[Note 1] Launched in 1797, Constitution was one of six original frigates authorized for construction by the Naval Act of 1794 and the third constructed. Joshua Humphreys designed the frigates to be the young Navy's capital ships, and so Constitution and her sisters were larger and more heavily armed and built than standard frigates of the period. The Constitution was built in the North End of Boston, Massachusetts, at Edmund Hartt's shipyard. Her first duties with the newly formed U.S. Navy were to provide protection for American merchant shipping during the Quasi-War with France and to defeat the Barbary pirates in the First Barbary War. Retired from active service in 1881, Constitution served as a receiving ship until designated a museum ship in 1907. The officers and crew are all active-duty US Navy personnel and the assignment is considered special duty in the Navy. Traditionally, command of the vessel is assigned to a Navy commander. Constitution is berthed at Pier 1 of the former Charlestown Navy Yard, at one end of Boston's Freedom Trail.