Columbia, South Carolina, Sesquicentennial half dollar
United States | |
Value | 50 cents (0.50 US dollars) |
---|---|
Mass | 12.5[1] g |
Diameter | 30.61[1] mm (1.20 in) |
Thickness | 2.15 mm (0.08[2][3] in) |
Edge | Reeded[1][a] |
Composition |
|
Silver | 0.36169 Assay Commission
Philadelphia Mint: 9,007 Denver Mint: 8,009 San Francisco Mint: 8,007[4] |
Mint marks | D, S. Located beneath the figure of Justice on the obverse. Coins struck at the Philadelphia Mint have no mint mark. |
Obverse | |
Design | Lady Justice holding a sword and scales; Columbia's old and new State Houses |
Designer | Abraham Wolfe Davidson |
Design date | 1936 |
Reverse | |
Design | Palmetto tree surrounded by 13 stars, with arrows bound to it; below a broken oaken branch |
Designer | Abraham Wolfe Davidson |
Design date | 1936 |
The Columbia, South Carolina, Sesquicentennial half dollar was a
The
Despite growing opposition to commemorative coins, legislation for the Columbia half dollars passed Congress unopposed in 1936. The
Background
The area around what is now
Until 1954, the entire mintage of commemorative coin issues was sold by the government at face value to a group authorized by Congress, who then tried to sell the coins at a profit to the public. The new pieces then came on to the secondary market. In early 1936 all earlier commemoratives sold at a premium to their issue prices. The apparent easy profits to be made by purchasing and holding commemoratives attracted many to the hobby of coin collecting, where they sought to purchase the new issues. This led to many commemorative coin proposals in Congress, including some of purely local significance.[8] These bills passed although the Treasury Department opposed the issuance of commemorative coins, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt had in 1935 asked that Congress pass no more such bills.[9] The group designated to purchase the Columbia half dollar from the government was a committee to be established by Columbia's mayor (who in 1936 was Lawrence B. Owens),[10] with the committee consisting of not fewer than three people.[2]
Legislation
The coin was proposed by the Columbia Sesqui-Centennial Commission.
Fulmer brought the bill to the floor of the House of Representatives on February 24, 1936.
In the Senate, the bill was referred to the Committee on Banking and Currency. South Carolina's James F. Byrnes reported it back on March 3, 1936, recommending a number of minor amendments which stressed that the anniversary commemorated was not the founding of the city, but of it being the capital of South Carolina. The Senate amended the bill and passed it without discussion or dissent.[16] As the two houses had passed versions that were not identical, the bill returned to the House of Representatives, where, on March 5, Fulmer asked that the House adopt the Senate amendments, which it did.[17] The bill, providing for 25,000 half dollars, became law with the signature of President Roosevelt on March 18, 1936.[2]
Preparation
The Sesqui-Centennial Commission selected 32-year-old sculptor Abraham Wolfe Davidson of
On June 13, Ross returned the models to Davidson and wrote to James Hammond, chair of the Sesqui-Centennial Commission, saying she had returned the models and setting forth the Mint's technical requirements for coinage models.[23] Thereafter, Davidson worked under the supervision of Lee Lawrie, sculptor-member of the CFA. The figure of Justice on the obverse was made less "slumpy", and the leaves of the palmetto on the reverse idealized. The revised models were recommended by the CFA on July 22, and subsequently were approved by Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau.[24]
Design
The obverse of the Columbia half dollar depicts Lady Justice, bearing a sword and a set of scales, though lacking the blindfold used in many depictions. To her left and right are South Carolina's old and new state houses, with one of the anniversary dates under each. If the coin was struck at the Denver Mint or at San Francisco, the appropriate mint mark appears beneath her—D or S. At the time, the Philadelphia Mint did not use one. The word LIBERTY appears to her left, and a statement of the anniversary rings the design.[25]
The reverse depicts a palmetto tree, the emblem of South Carolina. Arrows are tied to its base in a saltire pattern by a broad ribbon, signifying the tree's military connotation. On June 28, 1776, a British naval squadron tried to seize Fort Moultrie in Charleston Harbor. Though many shots were fired by the British ships during the Battle of Sullivan's Island, those that hit the fortifications were absorbed by the soft palmetto logs that formed it; the American death toll was 12 against hundreds of British killed by the fort's gunfire. The lopped oak branch at the palmetto's base symbolizes the oaken British vessels.[26] As Arlie Slabaugh Jr. put it in his volume on commemorative coins, "the South Carolinians had proven in 1776 that the palmetto was superior to the oak of Old England, and so it appears above the oak on this coin".[5] The 13 stars surrounding the tree ostensibly symbolize the original American states, but may also have been intended to evoke the Confederate States of America.[26][b] The name of the country, the coin's face value, and the mottos required by law appear on the reverse. Davidson's initials do not appear on the coin.[27]
According to Carl Stang in his 2012 article on the Columbia half dollar, "the coin generally is nice looking in virtually any condition".
Distribution and collecting
The anniversary celebrations in Columbia took place between March 22 and 29, 1936.
To ensure a fair distribution of the coins, only small orders were filled. For the first 24 hours of sales, the coins were available only to residents of the city and thereafter could only be purchased by mail order.[11][18] Local residents could buy them at $2 each. Dealers were unable to obtain large quantities,[6] leading them to list the coins for sale in their advertisements without a sales price.[5] David Bullowa, in his 1938 monograph on commemoratives, wrote, "The distribution was made by the commission on a very fair basis, and few persons were able to secure these coins in quantity. It made every endeavor to treat the collector fairly and to prevent the speculator from manipulating the prices of the sets in the open market, as had been done with many previous commemorative issues."[35] Most orders for a single set of coins were filled. Some sets were held back for other purposes: one was presented to President Roosevelt in February 1937 and six sets were placed in a time capsule that was opened in 1986, when those coins were sold for several thousand dollars a set.[36]
By 1940, the sets were selling for about $6 each on the secondary market, a price that increased to $10 by 1950 and to $100 by 1965. By 1980, they were $1,750 per set, a price that decreased thereafter.
Notes
References
- ^ a b c d e f Yeoman, p. 1100.
- ^ a b c Flynn, p. 353.
- OCLC 1123997620.
- ^ Columbia Sesquicentennial Half Dollar Commemorative History, Facts, and Specifications
- ^ a b c Slabaugh, p. 133.
- ^ a b c Flynn, p. 78.
- ^ Stang, pp. 57–58.
- ^ Bowers, pp. 62–63.
- United States Government Printing Office. pp. 36–38.
- ^ "Mayors of Columbia". Richland Library. Retrieved December 25, 2020.
- ^ a b c "Silver Commemoratives – 1936 D Columbia 50C MS". NGC Coin Explorer. Retrieved April 22, 2019.
- U.S. House of Representatives. June 17, 1935.
- United States Government Printing Office. June 28, 1935. Retrieved February 27, 2020.
- United States Government Printing Office. March 18, 1936. p. 1165. Retrieved February 27, 2020.
- ^ 1936 Congressional Record, Vol. 82, Page 2680 (February 25, 1936)
- ^ 1936 Congressional Record, Vol. 82, Page 3100 (March 3, 1936)
- ^ 1936 Congressional Record, Vol. 82, Page 3337 (March 5, 1936)
- ^ a b c "1936 Columbia Sesquicentennial Half Dollar". Early Commemorative Coins. 29 August 2011. Retrieved April 22, 2019.
- ^ a b Brothers.
- ^ Taxay, p. 179.
- ^ Taxay, pp. v–vi.
- ^ a b Flynn, p. 268.
- ^ a b Flynn, pp. 268–269.
- ^ Taxay, p. 181.
- ^ Swiatek, pp. 321–322.
- ^ a b Swiatek & Breen, p. 53.
- ^ Swiatek, p. 322.
- ^ Stang, p. 59.
- ^ a b Bowers, p. 344.
- ^ a b Vermeule, p. 200.
- ^ Bowers, pp. 210–211.
- ^ Bowers, pp. 343–344.
- ^ Flynn, p. 77.
- ^ Slabaugh, p. 132.
- ^ Bullowa, p. 132.
- ^ Bowers, pp. 344–345.
- ^ Bowers, p. 346.
- ^ Ferguson, Mark (February 28, 2020). "Price records emerge for finest CAC commemorative half dollars". CoinWeek. Archived from the original on April 20, 2020. Retrieved February 29, 2020.
Sources
- ISBN 978-0-943161-35-8.
- Brothers, Eric (August 2014). "Abraham Wolfe Davidson". The Numismatist.
- Bullowa, David M. (1938). "The Commemorative Coinage of the United States 1892–1938". Numismatic Notes and Monographs (83). New York: JSTOR 43607181.
- Flynn, Kevin (2008). The Authoritative Reference on Commemorative Coins 1892–1954. Roswell, GA: Kyle Vick. OCLC 711779330.
- Slabaugh, Arlie R. (1975). United States Commemorative Coinage (second ed.). Racine, WI: ISBN 978-0-307-09377-6.
- Stang, Carl (April 2012). "The 1936 Columbia half dollar: A coin that BOOMS!". The Numismatist. pp. 56–59.
- Swiatek, Anthony (2012). Encyclopedia of the Commemorative Coins of the United States. Chicago, IL: KWS Publishers. ISBN 978-0-9817736-7-4.
- Swiatek, Anthony; ISBN 978-0-668-04765-4.
- ISBN 978-0-668-01536-3.
- ISBN 978-0-674-62840-3.
- ISBN 978-0-7948-4705-0.
External links
- Media related to Columbia, South Carolina, Sesquicentennial half dollar at Wikimedia Commons