Lynchburg 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 Liberty |
Designer | Charles Keck |
Design date | 1936 |
The Lynchburg Sesquicentennial half dollar was a commemorative
Glass sponsored legislation for the half dollar, which passed Congress without difficulty. The Commission of Fine Arts proposed that the coin should bear the portrait of John Lynch, founder of Lynchburg, on the obverse, but no portrait of him was known. Instead, the Lynchburg Sesqui-Centennial Association decided Senator Glass should be on the coin. Despite his opposition, Glass became the third living person to appear on a U.S. coin, and the first to be shown alone.
The coins sold well when placed on sale in the late summer of 1936, and sales to out-of-towners were limited. The entire issue sold out, with some put aside for the sesquicentennial celebrations in October. Issued for $1 (equivalent to $22 in 2023), the coins have appreciated over the years, with 2018 estimates of value ranging between $225 and $365, depending on condition.
Background
The Lynchburg Sesqui-Centennial Association desired to have a commemorative half dollar honoring the anniversary of the Virginia General Assembly's 1786 first mention of the incorporation of Lynchburg; it became a city in 1852.[1] In 1936, commemorative coins were not sold by the government—Congress, in authorizing legislation, usually designated an organization with exclusive rights to purchase them at face value and vend to the public at a premium.[2] In the case of the Lynchburg half dollar, the responsible group would be the Sesqui-Centennial Association.[3]
The year 1936 saw Congress authorize 15 new commemorative coin issues, and pieces authorized in prior years were struck again, dated 1936. That year saw a major boom in commemorative coin prices, and the new issues helped fuel the market. Some of these new issues, like the Cincinnati Musical Center half dollar, were controlled by insiders for private profit.[4] The Lynchburg piece, on the other hand, would defray the cost of the anniversary celebrations,[5] and was motivated by pride in the city and its history.[6] Lynchburg was a supply center for the Confederacy during the Civil War; a Union attempt to take the city was beaten back in 1864 by Confederate General Jubal Early. In 1858, Carter Glass, later Secretary of the Treasury and a representative and senator from Virginia, was born there, and lived there in 1936.[7]
Legislation
Glass introduced the bill for a Lynchburg Sesquicentennial half dollar in the Senate on April 8, 1936; it was referred to the Committee on Banking and Currency. On April 22, Alva B. Adams of Colorado reported it back to the Senate.[8] In its report, the committee noted that the bill included the standardized language it advocated because of past commemorative coin abuses: including that they be issued by only one mint and no fewer than 5,000 at a time, have only one design, be struck within a year of enactment, and bear the date 1936 even if struck later. The committee recommended the bill pass.[9]
On April 24, Adams brought the bill before the Senate, and moved that the authorized quantity of the coins be increased from 10,000 to 20,000. Both the amendment and the bill were agreed to without debate or recorded opposition.[10] The bill then went to the House of Representatives where on May 22, Virginia's Clifton A. Woodrum brought it to the floor. Robert F. Rich of Pennsylvania, a Republican, took the floor long enough to note that "this is, perhaps, the thirtieth bill of this kind to come in here this session of Congress. It is surely the beginning of Democratic inflation, and I warn the Members of the House to beware."[11] Following laughter and applause, the bill passed without objection,[11] and with the signature of President Franklin D. Roosevelt on May 28, 1936, became a law authorizing 20,000 half dollars.[3]
Preparation
On May 25, 1936, with the Lynchburg bill close to enactment, the secretary of the Sesqui-Centennial Association, Fred McWane, wrote to
On June 3, McWane wrote to Moore stating that the Sesqui-Centennial Association was considering Charles Keck and John David Brcin to sculpt the coin; Moore in his reply on the 9th, praised both men, but praised Keck more.[15] Keck had designed the 1915 Panama-Pacific gold dollar and the Vermont Sesquicentennial half dollar in 1927.[16] The Sesqui-Centennial Association took the hint and McWane notified Moore of Keck's hiring on July 1. He also advised Moore that his commission had decided Senator Glass should appear on the obverse.[15]
Glass protested at the idea of his face appearing on a coin, but this was to no avail. He telephoned the Philadelphia Mint in the hope a law might forbid himself, as a living person, from appearing on a coin, but was told that none did. The senator stated, "I had hoped there would be an avenue of escape."[17] According to Don Taxay in his volume on U.S. commemorative coins, "though [Glass was] the most influential man in Lynchburg, and honorary president of the Sesquicentennial Association, he found himself hopelessly outvoted".[12] On July 28, Mary Margaret O'Reilly, the assistant director of the Mint, forwarded Keck's models to the Fine Arts Commission; they were approved the following day.[18] Moore wrote to Glass on the 31st, predicting that the senator's depiction was one "that both your friends and posterity will approve".[15] Keck's models were sent to the Medallic Art Company of New York, which reduced them to coin-sized dies.[19]
Design
The obverse contains a representation of Senator Carter Glass, making the Lynchburg Sesquicentennial half dollar the third U.S. coin to depict a living person, and the first to show one alone—the earlier two, the
The reverse depicts a statue of the goddess
Art historian
Production, distribution and collecting
In September 1936, the Philadelphia Mint struck 20,000 Lynchburg half dollars, plus 13 extra that would be held for inspection and testing at the 1937 meeting of the annual
The coins increased in price after 1936, their value helped by the wide distribution of the mintage, with no known hoards. By 1940, the value in uncirculated condition was $2, and by 1970 $40. At the height of the later commemorative coin boom in 1980, they sold for $550, dropping back to $375 by 1985.
Notes
- Joseph Taylor Robinsonalone.
References
- ^ Taxay, p. 212.
- ^ Slabaugh, pp. 3–5.
- ^ a b Flynn, p. 355.
- ^ Bowers, pp. 12–13.
- ^ a b Flynn, p. 118.
- ^ a b Swiatek & Breen, p. 144.
- ^ Slabaugh, pp. 124–25.
- ^ S. 4448 Calendar No. 2009. United States Senate. April 22, 1936.(subscription required)
- ^ Senate Committee on Banking and Commerce (April 22, 1936). Authorize the Coinage of 50-cent Pieces in Commemoration of the One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the Issuance of the Charter to the City of Lynchburg, Va. p. 1.(subscription required)
- ^ 1936 Congressional Record, Vol. 82, p. 6067 (April 24, 1936)
- ^ a b 1936 Congressional Record, Vol. 82, pp. 7774–75 (May 22, 1936)
- ^ a b Taxay, p. 211.
- ^ Taxay, pp. v–vi.
- ^ Taxay, pp. 212, 214.
- ^ a b c Taxay, p. 214.
- ^ Bowers, p. 376.
- ^ Swiatek, p. 351.
- ^ Taxay, p. 216.
- ^ Bullowa, p. 149.
- ^ Swiatek, pp. 251–52.
- ^ Bullowa, p. 150.
- ^ Slabaugh, p. 24.
- ^ Swiatek, p. 352.
- WSLS. Retrieved September 17, 2018.
- ^ a b Vermeule, p. 196.
- ^ Vermeule, pp. 196–97.
- ^ a b Bowers, pp. 26, 376.
- ^ "The Lynchburg (Va.) Half Dollar". The Numismatist. August 1936. p. 660.(subscription required)
- ^ Horner, John V. (October 1936). "The Lynchburg Half Dollar". The Numismatist. p. 828.(subscription required)
- ^ Swiatek, pp. 352, 354.
- ^ Swiatek & Breen, p. 376.
- ^ Bowers, pp. 376–77.
- ^ Yeoman, p. 1086.
Sources
- ISBN 978-0-943161-35-8.
- Bullowa, David M. (1938). "The Commemorative Coinage of the United States 1892–1938". Numismatic Notes and Monographs (83). New York: JSTOR 43607181.(subscription required)
- 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 (2nd 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.
- ISBN 978-0-674-62840-3.
- ISBN 978-0-7948-4580-3.