Q. David Bowers
What Happened in Hudson
The city of Hudson, New York decided to commemorate its sesquicentennial-by now coin collectors were well aware that "sesquicentennial" meant 150th anniversary-by issuing a commemorative half dollar. The usual arrangement was that the issuing commission paid for the design of the coin and making of the dies and then bought all the pieces it wanted for face value. The bottom-line profit was determined by deducting the face value of the coins and any incidental expenses from the price for which the coins were sold. Just 10,008 1935-dated Hudson half dollars were struck, and these were advertised to collectors and others for $1 each.
It is to be remembered that several years earlier, in 1928, Hawaiian Sesquicentennial half dollars of similar mintage quantity were offered for $2 each and were sold out quickly. In fact, by 1935 a Hawaiian half dollar had climbed in value on the collectors' market to about $8. Not bad as an investment, many reasoned. It does not require much imagination to figure out that a New York dealer was not taking much of a risk when he decided to buy an estimated 7,500 Hudsons for 95¢ each. The issuers in Hudson, New York may have been naive, or perhaps they figured it was easier to sell the coins in bulk for nearly the same price as individually, or perhaps some inside deals were made, but, in any event, by the time that the coins went on official public sale in late June 1935, nearly all were gone. Collectors from all over the United States had their remittances returned in July with a sold-out notice. What to do? The only alternative was to pay about $5 per coin to dealers who happened to have a supply for sale.
Daniel Boone's Extended Anniversary
"You ain't seen nothin' yet," and the best (or worst) was yet to come. Daniel Boone, the noted frontiersman, was born in Pennsylvania in 1734, and 200 years later, in 1934, in Lexington, Kentucky an individual named C. Frank Dunn paid tribute to his memory by issuing commemorative half dollars. The year 1934 came and went, and the 10,007 1934-dated Boone Bicentennial half dollars struck at the Philadelphia Mint were well received. However, as was so often to be the case in this era, although the birthday party was over and the candles had been blown out, the greedy host kept asking for gifts. Now in 1935 collectors were given the "opportunity" to complete their collections of Boone half dollars (which many had thought were already complete when they had bought a 1934-dated coin) by purchasing a new set of Boone halves, each coin with the date 1935. Of course, 1935 had nothing to do with Daniel Boone except it was the 20 1st anniversary of his birth. To help with sales, while the Philadelphia coins were minted to the extent of 10,010 pieces in 1935, Denver and San Francisco pieces were deliberately made scarce; just 5,005 of each were struck.
Then Dunn had a brilliant idea: Why not make a really rare coin? As the 1935-dated sets were already made, he came up with the thought of creating another special variety, one with a tiny date" 1934" on the reverse in addition to the regular 1935 date. Just 2,003 of these additional 1935 with "small 1934" coins were made at the Denver Mint and 2,004 at San Francisco, the smallest mintage of any silver commemorative in the history of United States numismatics. Offered at $3.70 per pair in The Numismatist in November 1935, the coins were presented to collectors who had no choice but to buy them in order to have their collections be complete. Of course, they had already thought their collections of Boone coins were finished, but they were wrong (once again).
In his office on the second floor of the Phoenix Hotel in downtown Lexington, Dunn got set to send mail to a lot of collectors in November and December 1935, but the mail was not to be in the form of Boone sets. Rather, everyone who sent a remittance from the Numismatist advertisement was told that, regretfully, others had beat him to the punch and, alas, there were no more 1935 Denver and San Francisco Boone coins with "small 1934" available. Daniel Boone in his grave could have heard the angry shouts against Dunn. To quiet the furor Dunn wrote a lengthy letter to the editor of The Numismatist to explain that he did indeed want to help members of the American Numismatic Association, but, quite surprising to him, other collectors had bought all of the coins as a result of news stories that had appeared earlier. So, sorry, he had no more.
Where to get the rare half dollars? The answer was, of course, quite clear: from dealers who just happened to have some for the new high price of $25 per pair. Wait a minute! That was still too cheap, and the same dealers winked (privately, of course) and reported that all had been sold. Soon, more were available, but now for $50 per pair, then for $75 or even $90 per pair. In view of threatened lawsuits by angry collectors, C. Frank Dunn transferred much of his property to his wife's name-just to be on the safe side.
The Market Crest
In early 1936 the commemorative market was as hot as a volcano, and each time a new issue was announced, collectors, dealers, and speculators rushed to order thousands. Although the market crested in early summer 1936, by year's end over two dozen varieties of commemorative half dollars had been issued, more than in any year before or since. By that time all sorts of nonsensical anniversaries were being observed on coins. Private individuals were succeeding in having their own commemorative issues minted to price and distribute as they pleased. Congress put its foot down in 1939, and commemoratives came to a halt. It didn't make too much difference by that point, for in 1936 prices and interest in commemoratives had peaked, and by 1939 they were an anathema to many, and the market was dead. Virtually everyone was fed up.
World War II began, and collectors thought of other things. After the conflict ended, commemoratives once again became a reality when Iowa celebrated its 100th anniversary of statehood with an issue of half dollars. At the same time the Booker T. Washington Birthplace Memorial succeeded in having Congress approve a series-type of coin, which was eventually issued in many repetitive varieties from 1946 to 1951, and (then with a complete design change) in new form as the Carver Washington half dollar from 1951 through 1954. No series of the earlier years-such as the Oregon Trail, Arkansas, etc., issues had ever been popular with collectors, and the Booker T. Washington and the later Carver-Washington coins were not popular either. Vast quantities were later melted. An aphorism verified by the history of commemoratives is that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Anyone who saw what happened to the long series of commemoratives in the 1930s cou1d have predicted what would happen to the Booker T. Washington issues of the next decade and their Carver-Washington successors.
From 1892 until 1954 some 48 different major designs of commemorative half dollars were minted as part of a larger number of 142 varieties including date and mintmark variations of the same types. Add the 1893 Isabella quarter dollar and the 1900 Lafayette silver dollar, and there were 50 major silver commemorative types and 144 varieties made during the 1892-1954 span.
Commemorative gold coins were issued less frequently, and from 1903, when two different designs of gold dollars were made in advance for the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition, until 1926 nine varieties of gold dollars, two quarter eagles, and two $50 pieces were minted.
After 1954, commemorative coins were a sore point in Congress, and nothing was done for many years. In the meantime relations between the Treasury Department and the coin collecting fraternity sank to an all-time low when in the 1960s numismatists were unjustly blamed by Mint Director Eva Adams for creating economic chaos by precipitating a nationwide coin shortage.