United States Sesquicentennial coinage
Value | 50 cents (0.50 US dollars) |
---|---|
Mass | 12.50 g |
Diameter | 30.6 mm |
Thickness | 1.8 mm |
Edge | reeded |
Composition |
|
Silver | 0.36169 troy oz |
Years of minting | 1926 |
Mint marks | None. All pieces struck at Philadelphia Mint without mint mark. |
Obverse | |
Design | Jugate heads of George Washington and Calvin Coolidge |
Designer | Modeled by John R. Sinnock from designs by John Frederick Lewis |
Design date | 1926 |
Reverse | |
Design | The Liberty Bell |
Designer | Modeled by John R. Sinnock from designs by John Frederick Lewis |
Design date | 1926 |
United States | |
Value | 2.5 United States dollars |
---|---|
Mass | 4.18 g |
Diameter | 18 mm |
Edge | reeded |
Composition | .900 gold, .100 copper |
Gold | .12094 troy oz |
Years of minting | 1926 |
Mint marks | None. All pieces struck at Philadelphia Mint without mint mark. |
Obverse | |
Design | Liberty, bearing a scroll representing the United States Declaration of Independence and a torch |
Designer | John R. Sinnock |
Design date | 1926 |
Reverse | |
Design | Independence Hall, with a rising Sun behind it |
Designer | John R. Sinnock |
Design date | 1926 |
The United States Sesquicentennial coin issue consisted of a commemorative
By the March 1925 Act of Congress, by which the National Sesquicentennial Exhibition Commission was chartered, Congress also allowed it to purchase 1,000,000 specially designed half dollars and 200,000 quarter eagles, which could be sold to the public at a premium. The Commission had trouble agreeing on a design with Mint Chief Engraver John R. Sinnock, and asked Philadelphia attorney, arts patron and numismatist John Frederick Lewis (1860–1932) to submit sketches.[1] These were adapted by Sinnock, without giving credit to Lewis, whose involvement would not be generally known for forty years.
Both the quarter eagle, designed by Sinnock, and the half dollar were struck in the maximum number authorized, but many were returned to the Mint for melting when they failed to sell. The Liberty Bell reverse for the half dollar was later reused by Sinnock, again without giving Lewis credit, on the Chief Engraver's Franklin half dollar, which was first minted in 1948.
Inception
Legislation for a commemorative coin to mark the 150th anniversary of American independence was introduced on behalf of the United States National Sesquicentennial Exhibition Commission, which was charged with organizing what became known as the Sesquicentennial Exposition in Philadelphia. In the Act of March 3, 1925, Congress both chartered the Commission and allowed one million half dollars and 200,000 quarter eagles to be struck in commemoration of the Sesquicentennial of American Independence. These coins would be sold only to the Commission, at face value; it could then retail them to the public at a premium.[2] Profits would go to financing the Exposition.[3]
The original version of the bill, introduced in the House of Representatives on February 16, 1925 by Pennsylvania Congressman
In May, H. P. Caemmerer, secretary of the
Apparently dissatisfied with Sinnock's work, the Sesquicentennial Commission hired John Frederick Lewis to create designs.
Sinnock's sketches for the quarter eagle were sent to the Fine Arts Commission on February 27, 1926, and were forwarded to sculptor member
Design
The obverse of the half dollar features jugate busts of George Washington, first president of the United States, and Calvin Coolidge, the president in 1926. According to Anthony Swiatek and Walter Breen, "both were mistakes. Washington was not president of the Continental Congress in 1776, and Coolidge's likeness was illegal. By an 1866 Act of Congress, no living person could be portrayed on U.S. coins or currency; but this law had been many times violated and would be again."[16] Although Sinnock had not previously designed a coin showing a president, he had created presidential medals under Chief Engraver Morgan's direction.[17] Other living Americans, including Virginia Senator Carter Glass, have appeared on commemorative coinage, but Coolidge is the only president to appear on a U.S. coin in his lifetime. The Liberty Bell appears on the reverse, making the Sesquicentennial half dollar the first U.S. coin to bear private advertising—that is, the legend "Pass and Stow" on the bell, for the long-defunct partnership of John Pass and John Stow, who recast the bell after it initially broke in 1752.[18][19] Sinnock's initials JRS are on the obverse, on the truncation of Washington's bust.[20]
Swiatek and Breen describe the obverse of the quarter eagle as "very
At the insistence of the Sesquicentennial Commission, the coins were minted in very shallow relief, and thus struck up poorly.[12] Coin dealer and numismatic author Q. David Bowers opined, "from the standpoint of aesthetic appeal the [half dollar] is at the bottom of the popularity charts along with the 1923-S Monroe half dollar".[24]
Art historian
Distribution and aftermath
The first Sesquicentennial half dollar was coined by Philadelphia Mayor W. Freeland Kendrick at a special ceremony at that city's mint on May 19, 1926. It was presented to President Coolidge when he visited the Exposition[28] and today rests in the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Library and Museum.[13] Lewis, in a May 5 letter to Mint Director Grant, had indicated his (mistaken) understanding that a mark was placed on the first 1,000 coins struck to distinguish them and proposed that it be "K" for Kendrick; this was not done.[13]
The Philadelphia Mint coined 1,000,528 of the half dollars at the behest of the Commission in May and June 1926, with the excess over the authorized mintage reserved for inspection and testing at the 1927 meeting of the United States Assay Commission.[29] They also had the mint strike 200,226 quarter eagles in May and June, with the excess also set aside for the Assay Commission. The gold piece was the second quarter eagle to be a commemorative, after the Panama–Pacific issue of 1915. No further gold commemoratives, of any denomination, would be issued by the Mint Bureau until 1984, when a $10 piece was issued for the Los Angeles Olympics.[30]
The Sesquicentennial Exposition opened in Philadelphia on June 1, 1926, financed in part by $5 million in bonds floated by the city. Work had not been completed on many of the exhibits and construction continued to the close of the fair. Nevertheless, there were many scientific, artistic, and commercial displays. Most firms that exhibited lost money by their participation, as did the city, and according to Bowers, "in the annals of fairs and expositions in the United States, the Sesquicentennial event earns a low rating."[12]
Sales of coins at the Exposition were handled by the Commission; those by mail were dealt with by the Franklin Trust Company. The half dollar was priced at $1, and the quarter eagle at $4; however they did not sell well and the Commission's belief it could sell the entire mintage proved wildly optimistic. Although six million people visited the Exposition, 859,408 of the 1,000,000 half dollars were returned to the mint for melting. Similarly, 154,207 quarter eagles of the mintage of 200,000 were returned for melting.[28] This did not take place all at once: 420,000 half dollars had been returned by January 1930, with the rest later.[31] According to coin dealer B. Max Mehl in his 1937 volume on commemoratives, "Philadelphia with a population of over 2,000,000 people ... could and should have sold a greater number of coins".[32] Arlie R. Slabaugh wrote in his 1975 book on the same subject, "we have been called complacent about our independence and the American way of life in recent years—judging by the sale of these coins, it must have been much worse in 1926!"[33]
Sinnock reused the reverse for the
Notes
- Joseph Taylor Robinson appeared on the Arkansas-Robinson half dollar and Carter Glass appeared on the Lynchburg Sesquicentennial half dollar.
References and bibliography
- ^ Brief biographical entry for John Frederick Lewis at pcgs.com (excerpted from Q. David Bowers, 1992. Commemorative Coins of the United States: A Complete Encyclopedia)
- ^ Flynn, pp. 350–351.
- ^ Flynn, p. 223.
- ^ "H. J. Res. 357". United States House of Representatives. February 16, 1925.(subscription required)
- ^ "S. J. Res. 187". United States Senate. February 16, 1925.(subscription required)
- ^ "Hearings of the Committee on Industrial Arts and Expositions on H. J. Res. 357". United States House of Representatives. February 18, 1925. pp. 9–10.(subscription required)
- ^ Slabaugh, p. 76.
- ^ Bowers, pp. 225–226.
- ^ Taxay, pp. 111–112.
- ^ a b c Taxay, p. 111.
- ^ Goodyear, Frank H. Jr. (July 16, 2008). "A History of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1805-1976". Resource Library. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
- ^ a b c d e Bowers, p. 226.
- ^ a b c d Flynn, p. 169.
- ^ a b Taxay, p. 112.
- ^ Taxay, pp. 112, 117.
- ^ a b Swiatek & Breen, p. 221.
- ^ Vermeule, p. 171.
- ^ Swiatek, pp. 186–187.
- ^ Flynn, p. 168.
- ^ Swiatek, p. 186.
- ^ Swiatek & Breen, pp. 221–222.
- ^ Bowers, p. 643.
- ^ Swiatek, p. 192.
- ^ Bowers, p. 227.
- ^ a b Vermeule, p. 172.
- ^ a b Vermeule, p. 173.
- ^ Vermeule, pp. 172–173.
- ^ a b Swiatek, p. 187.
- ^ Bowers, pp. 226, 228.
- ^ Bowers, pp. 644–645.
- ^ Bowers, p. 227 n.1.
- ^ Mehl, p. 21.
- ^ Slabaugh, p. 73.
- ^ Taxay, p. 117.
- ^ Yeoman 2014, pp. 294–295.
Books
- Bowers, Q. David (1992). Commemorative Coins of the United States: A Complete Encyclopedia. Wolfeboro, NH: Bowers and Merena Galleries, Inc.
- Flynn, Kevin (2008). The Authoritative Reference on Commemorative Coins 1892–1954. Roswell, GA: Kyle Vick. OCLC 711779330.
- Mehl, B. Max (1937). The Commemorative Coinage of the United States. Fort Worth, TX: B. Max Mehl.
- Slabaugh, Arlie R. (1975). United States Commemorative Coinage (second ed.). Racine, WI: Whitman Publishing (then a division of Western Publishing Company, Inc.). 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.
- OL 28306197M.