Lexington–Concord Sesquicentennial half dollar
United States | |
Value | 50 cents (0.50 US dollars) |
---|---|
Mass | 12.5 g |
Diameter | 30.61 mm (1.20 in) |
Thickness | 2.15 mm (0.08 in) |
Edge | Reeded |
Composition |
|
Silver | 0.36169 troy oz |
Years of minting | 1925 |
Mintage | 162,099 including 99 pieces for the Assay Commission |
Mint marks | None, all pieces struck at Philadelphia Mint without mint mark. |
Obverse | |
Design | The Minute Man by Daniel Chester French, Concord, Massachusetts |
Designer | Chester Beach |
Design date | 1925 |
Reverse | |
Design | Old Belfry, Lexington, Massachusetts |
Designer | Chester Beach |
Design date | 1925 |
The Lexington–Concord Sesquicentennial half dollar, sometimes the Lexington–Concord half dollar or Patriot half dollar, is
Members of the
The coins were sold for $1 at the anniversary celebrations in Lexington and in Concord; they were also sold at banks across New England. Although just over half of the authorized mintage of 300,000 was struck, almost all the coins that were minted were sold. Depending on condition, they are catalogued in the hundreds of dollars.
Background
The
The Secretary of State for the Colonies, Lord Dartmouth, instructed the British commander in Boston, General Thomas Gage, to stamp out this resistance. On April 18, 1775, Gage secretly ordered Lieutenant Colonel Francis Smith to go with 700 men to Concord and destroy the munitions there.[1][2] It is uncertain how the Americans came to hear of the plan: Gage's wife Margaret was born in New Jersey and may have been a spy.[3] Another local leader, Joseph Warren, informed Paul Revere and William Dawes, and the two men went by separate roads to Lexington to alert leaders and militia officers there that the British were coming. Both got through to Lexington, where they met with Hancock and Samuel Adams. The supplies in Concord were moved.[1][2]
British troops began their march at 2 am on April 19, and Smith sent troops ahead under Major John Pitcairn. When Pitcairn and his men found a company of armed colonials at Lexington's town common, he ordered them to disperse. In the confusion, a shot was fired from an unknown source, which brought several volleys from the British troops. Eight of the local men were killed and one British soldier was wounded. The British burned or otherwise destroyed what supplies they could find in Concord, and a second confrontation took place at the North Bridge, in which the legendary "shot heard round the world" was fired.[1][2] The bridge was held by the British, and by then about 400 minutemen had assembled. Seeing the smoke from Concord, the colonials believed the town was being burned, and attempted to cross the bridge to succor it. The British fired on them but the colonials returned fire and defeated them. The British, who had gotten reinforcements once they realized the countryside was roused against them, began their march to Boston harassed by at least 2,000 militiamen who inflicted a steady toll by gunfire until the British gained the protection of the cannon near Boston. The encounters at Lexington and Concord were the first battles of what became the Revolutionary War.[4]
Legislation
Identical
Rogers outlined the request for the establishment of the commission, with four members to be appointed by each house of Congress and three by President
The resolution was brought to the House floor on June 7, 1924, when Luce asked that the House pass the legislation. In his report, he had alluded to the well-known
Preparation
In 1923, the committees from Lexington and Concord each had considered pressing for a commemorative coin, and each, unbeknownst to the other, had contacted Chester Beach, credited with the design for the Monroe Doctrine Centennial half dollar. Beach got them to combine their efforts and each agreed to pay half of his fee of $1,250. Each town would decide the design for one side of the half dollar.[15]
Judge Prescott Keyes, who led the Concord committee, sent Beach the proposed design for the obverse (the Concord side) on February 2, 1925, letting him know the Lexington design for the reverse, or Lexington side, would soon follow. The following day, Edward Stone, attorney for the Lexington committee, sent Beach a letter formalizing the contract. Beach would not be paid unless the Commission of Fine Arts approved the plaster models. Beach replied to Stone on the 4th, relating that he had spoken to James Earle Fraser, designer of the Buffalo nickel and sculptor member of the commission, and had been informed that the commission had just had its monthly meeting, but a quorum could be assembled to approve the coin. Beach noted that the Mint would take three or four weeks to begin striking coins once final approval was given; he had discussed this with Chief Engraver George T. Morgan in 1924. Morgan had recently died, but Beach did not expect the new chief engraver, John R. Sinnock, to cause any additional delays.[16]
On February 4, Concord artist Philip Holden sent Beach improved sketches for both sides. Beach had been under the impression that the year must appear on the coin by itself, in addition to the anniversary dates 1775–1925; on February 5 Keyes wrote to Beach that he had viewed the Pilgrim Tercentenary half dollar and the Huguenot-Walloon half dollar. Both bore their dates only as part of anniversaries. Keyes noted that the two coins had the words "PILGRIM" and "HUGUENOT" respectively before "HALF DOLLAR", and proposed that the word "PATRIOT" appear in the same place on the new coin. Keyes noted that April 19, the anniversary of both battles, is Patriot Day in Massachusetts. He insisted that the words "THE CONCORD MINUTE MAN" appear even if it was illegible, "the public in these two towns are sometimes pretty sensitive about petty matters and so Mr. Stone and I have been very particular to come to an agreement as to all details."[17]
Beach agreed to the wording changes, subject to approval by the authorities in Washington. On February 12, 1925, Keyes wrote again to tell him that
By March 27, trial strikes had been made of the new coin at the Philadelphia Mint. Stone ordered an initial quantity of 100,000 half dollars on March 31.[20]
Design
By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April's breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard round the world.
The obverse reproduces Daniel Chester French's 1874 statue, The Minute Man, that stands in Concord. Commemorating the minutemen, volunteer militia who fought the British in 1775, it depicts a farmer, rifle in hand. His coat is draped over his plow, and he is ready to respond to the signal to assemble, presumably to be given by the bell in the Old Belfry at Lexington, the subject of the reverse of the coin. The minuteman's head obscures part of the name of the country he helped to establish, and he is flanked on the left by the words "CONCORD MINUTE-MAN" and on the right by "IN GOD WE TRUST".[21] Not shown on the coin, but on the base of the statue in Concord, is the first stanza of Ralph Waldo Emerson's poem, "Concord Hymn", verses dutifully memorized by generations of American schoolchildren.[21]
The reverse depicts the Old Belfry, located in Lexington, where a bell was sounded to assemble the local militia. The belfry was not then old, having been built following the donation of a bell weighing 463 pounds (210 kg) by Isaac Stone to the town of Lexington in 1761. The bell was sounded after Revere and Dawes arrived, but when no British soldiers appeared, Captain John Parker sent his men home, with instructions to remain ready. It was sounded again at 5:30 am, when word came the British were not far away.[2]
Numismatist John F. Jones, in his 1937 survey of commemoratives, felt the statue and belfry highly appropriate subjects for the coin, but regretted that it lacked the clear, sharp lines of earlier special issues.
Production, distribution, and collecting
A total of 162,099 Lexington–Concord Sesquicentennial half dollars were struck at the Philadelphia Mint in April and May 1925, with 99 pieces set aside for inspection and testing by the 1926
The first coin struck was presented to President Coolidge. The half dollars were sold at the anniversary celebrations in Lexington and at those in Concord, both held April 18–20, 1925, with 39,000 sold in Lexington and 21,000 in Concord. Distribution was handled by the Lexington Trust Company and the Concord National Bank, which sold them in wooden boxes decorated with images of the statue and belfry. They were sold by banks throughout New England, and to some extent elsewhere in the country. Only 86 coins were returned to the Mint, likely representing damaged pieces. Most were sold to the general public, not to collectors.
Notes
- ^ The difference between the cost of making the coin, including the value of the metal inside it, and the face value.
References
- ^ a b c d Slabaugh, p. 62.
- ^ a b c d Flynn, p. 112.
- ISBN 0-19-508847-6.
- The History Channel. Archivedfrom the original on November 3, 2015. Retrieved August 29, 2015.
- ^ House hearings, p. 1.
- ^ "68 H.J. Res. 255 Introduced in House". Retrieved August 29, 2015 – via ProQuest. (subscription required)
- ^ United States Government Printing Office. May 9, 1924. (subscription required)
- ^ House hearings, p. 3.
- ^ a b House hearings, pp. 3–6.
- ^ Slabaugh, pp. 3–5.
- ^ 1924 Congressional Record, Vol. 70, Page 11209–11211 (June 7, 1924)
- ^ 1924 Congressional Record, Vol. 70, Page 11152 (June 7, 1924)
- ^ 1925 Congressional Record, Vol. 71, Page 1196 (January 5, 1925)
- ^ Flynn, p. 111.
- ^ Bowers, p. 187.
- ^ Taxay, pp. 80, 85.
- ^ Taxay, pp. 85–86.
- ^ Taxay, pp. 86–88.
- ^ a b Flynn, p. 290.
- ^ Flynn, pp. 290–291.
- ^ a b Swiatek & Breen, p. 135.
- ^ Jones, p. 395.
- ^ a b c Vermeule, p. 168.
- ^ a b Bowers, p. 189.
- ^ Flynn, p. 113.
- ^ Swiatek, p. 161.
- ^ Yeoman 2018, p. 1464.
- ^ Yeoman 2015, pp. 1131–1132.
Sources
- ISBN 978-0-943161-35-8.
- Flynn, Kevin (2008). The Authoritative Reference on Commemorative Coins 1892–1954. Roswell, GA: Kyle Vick. OCLC 711779330.
- Jones, John F. (May 1937). "The Series of United States Commemorative Coins". The Numismatist. American Numismatic Association: 393–396.
- Slabaugh, Arlie R. (1975). United States Commemorative Coinage (second ed.). Racine, WI: Whitman Publishing. ISBN 978-0-307-09377-6.
- Swiatek, Anthony (2012). Encyclopedia of the Commemorative Coins of the United States. Chicago: KWS Publishers. ISBN 978-0-9817736-7-4.
- Swiatek, Anthony; ISBN 978-0-668-04765-4.
- ISBN 978-0-668-01536-3.
- United States House of Representatives Committee on the Library (May 8, 1924). One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the Battle of Lexington and Concord. United States Government Printing Office. (subscription required)
- ISBN 978-0-674-62840-3.
- ISBN 978-0-7948-4307-6.
- Yeoman, R. S. (2018). A Guide Book of United States Coins 2014 (Mega Red 4th ed.). Atlanta, GA: Whitman Publishing, LLC. ISBN 978-0-7948-4580-3.