S. 877 — Roberto Clemente Commemorative Coin Act

This section states congressional findings on the life, baseball career, civil rights advocacy, military service, philanthropy, death, and legacy of Roberto Clemente, including his birth in Puerto Rico in 1934; selection by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1954; encounters with Jim Crow discrimination; leadership in the Major League Baseball Players Association; achievements such as 3,000 hits, 15 All-Star selections, 12 Gold Gloves, 4 batting titles, and a .317 lifetime average; death at age 38 in a 1972 plane crash during a humanitarian aid mission to earthquake-ravaged Nicaragua; and posthumous honors including induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1973 and the annual Roberto Clemente Award.

This section directs the Secretary of the Treasury to mint and issue the following coins: (1) not more than 50,000 $5 gold coins weighing 8.359 grams, with a 0.850-inch diameter, and containing at least 90% gold; (2) not more than 400,000 $1 silver coins weighing 26.73 grams, with a 1.500-inch diameter, and containing at least 90% silver; and (3) not more than 750,000 half-dollar clad coins weighing 11.34 grams, with a 1.205-inch diameter, and minted to standard circulating half-dollar specifications. The coins are legal tender, as provided in 31 U.S.C. 5103, and considered numismatic items for purposes of 31 U.S.C. 5134 and 5136 (i.e., eligible for sale by the U.S. Mint at a premium above face value).

This section establishes design requirements for coins commemorating Roberto Clemente, mandating that designs be emblematic of his life—including his human rights activism and baseball stardom—with at least one obverse design bearing his image and specific inscriptions on each coin of his name, the coin's value, the year 2027, “Liberty,” “In God We Trust,” “United States of America,” and “E Pluribus Unum.” The section further directs the Secretary of the Treasury to select the designs after consultation with the Roberto Clemente Foundation, Clemente's living family members, and the Commission of the Fine Arts, with review by the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee.

This section requires coins minted under this Act to be issued in uncirculated and proof qualities and limits issuance to the one-year period beginning January 1, 2027.

This section directs the Secretary to sell coins issued under the Act at a price equal to the sum of (1) their face value, (2) the surcharge under section 7(a), and (3) design and issuance costs (including labor, materials, dies, machinery use, overhead, marketing, and shipping); make bulk sales at a reasonable discount; and accept prepaid orders before issuance at a reasonable discount.

This section establishes surcharges on sales of coins issued under this Act—(1) $35 per $5 coin, (2) $10 per $1 coin, and (3) $5 per half-dollar coin—with all surcharges paid to the Roberto Clemente Foundation for general expenses, including educational, youth sports, and disaster relief historic preservation efforts, subject to audit requirements. It prohibits surcharges if coin issuance would cause the number of commemorative coin programs in that calendar year to exceed the annual limit of two programs.

This section requires the Secretary to ensure that minting and issuing coins under this Act imposes no net cost on the U.S. government and that no funds, including surcharges, are disbursed to recipients designated in section 7 until the Treasury recovers all costs of designing and issuing the coins (i.e., labor, materials, dies, machinery use, overhead expenses, marketing, and shipping), consistent with 31 U.S.C. §§ 5112(m) and 5134(f).