Q. David Bowers
Commemorative coins run into trouble when it comes to anniversaries. At this point there are many confusing situations. For example, the 200th anniversary of the 1734 birth of Daniel Boone was observed by the 1934 Boone Bicentennial half dollar, but what connection does it have with Boone "bicentennial" half dollars issued as late as 1938? What about the 300th anniversary of the settling of Swedes in Delaware, 1638-1938, which was celebrated with a commemorative half dollar dated 1936? And then there are some anniversaries scarcely worth celebrating at all, at least not on the national scene, with a typical example being the 200th anniversary in 1936 of implementation of the borough form of government for the already established municipality of Norfolk, Virginia, an occasion which apparently called for the minting of 25,013 half dollars. However, even this was better than the nonexistent 50th anniversary in 1936 of Cincinnati as a musical center of America, duly commemorated on not one but three different varieties of half dollars.
Then there are people on coins: George Washington is the preeminent figure in American history, and his visage can be found on several commemorative coins including the 1900 Lafayette dollar (which depicts Lafayette and Washington), the 1926 Sesquicentennial of American Independence half dollar (which shows him with President Coolidge), and the 1982 Washington half dollar. Abraham Lincoln, arguably the best president of all time (or at least since Washington), commands the obverse of the 1918 Illinois Centennial half dollar.
The parade of individuals depicted on commemoratives is a long one and comprises names familiar as well as obscure including William McKinley, Carter Glass, Moses Cleaveland, Stephen Collins Foster, Booker T. Washington, Robert E. Lee, George Washington Carver, Calvin Coolidge, Sir Walter Raleigh (we learn that his name is spelled incorrectly on the coin and, further, that the portrait may be that of Errol Flynn!), Ira Allen, William Bradford, and Ulysses S. Grant, to give just a short list.
Daniel Boone, renowned for his trapping, and Phineas T. Barnum, famous for taking money from people's pockets ("every crowd has a silver lining"), were pictured on commemorative half dollars, a fact some cynical observers have considered significant. Walter Breen once referred to Barnum as "the patron saint of coin collectors."
Then there are personifications including the goddess of Justice (1936 Columbia, South Carolina half dollar), Minerva (1915-S Panama-Pacific $50), a typical pioneer (1936 Elgin half dollar), the goddess Columbia (1915-S Panama-Pacific half dollar), a mermaid (1935 Hudson half dollar), and Miss Liberty (1935-1939 Arkansas half dollars).
Buildings on commemorative coins are numerous and include the old Iowa State Capitol (1946 Iowa half dollar), Independence Hall (1926 Sesquicentennial $2.50), Brown's Garrison (1936 York County half dollar), Fort Vancouver (shown on a 1925 half dollar of the same name), a log cabin (1946-1951 Booker T. Washington half dollars), and the Old Swedes Church (1936 Delaware half dollar).
There may have been too many ships on coins; at least Cornelius Vermeule expressed this opinion. Other methods of conveyance are also found, including the Conestoga wagon (1926-1939 Oregon Trail half dollars) and several horses (including those supporting Lafayette, Washington, and Robert E. Lee), not to overlook ocean liners steaming in or out of San Francisco Bay and New York Harbor. Maps include two hemispheres (1892-1893 Columbian half dollars), the New World (1923-S Monroe Doctrine half dollar), the United States (1926-1939 Oregon Trail and 1951-1954 Carver-Washington half dollars), the Great Lakes region (1936 Cleveland half dollar), and the Southeastern United States area (1935 Old Spanish Trail half dollar).
Commemorative coins were not issued for numerous events which most historians agree are important. We have no coins honoring the sacrifices and victories of World War I or II (although the Civil War is represented by several coin issues), nor is the civil rights movement honored, and nowhere on a United States commemorative coin is there anything about such American technological achievements as computers or space exploration or of discoveries in medicine. Thomas E. Kilby is pictured on the obverse of a commemorative half dollar, but what about Thomas A. Edison? Stephen Foster adorns another, but why not George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, or Duke Ellington? Similarly, while perusing a collection of commemorative coins, we can contemplate the visages of William Wyatt Bibb, John Pell, Admiral Gaspard de Coligny, Peter Schuyler, John McLoughlin, and Joseph T. Robinson, none of whom the average Ph.D. could identify, but where are Jonas Salk, Martin Luther King, Benjamin Franklin, the Wright brothers, or, for that matter, all but a few presidents? Have our priorities been misplaced? Next question.
When it comes to raising money-and most commemoratives were issued to raise money-nothing beats the all-American worthy cause. Among commemoratives some causes were more worthy than others. Funds from the sale of the 1936 Elgin half dollar were to go toward the erection of the Pioneer Memorial statuary group in that city, but to this day, over a half century later, it has not been constructed. Similarly, all of the good things promised by those who sold 1922 Grant half dollars and gold dollars to raise funds to build a highway five miles in length and to create buildings never came to pass. On the other hand, the overwhelming response to the 1986 Statue of Liberty Centennial commemoratives produced profits that were effectively used toward the restoration of the Statue and of nearby Ellis Island. No one can dispute that reduction of the national debt is a worthy cause, and the proceeds from several modem commemoratives have been tossed into this seemingly bottomless pit, but I guess that every little bit helps.
I personally feel that the best way to identify with the history and romance of various commemorative issues is to study the designs, either in photographs or by viewing actual coins, and then to readabout them. I certainly didn't know who Thomas E. Kilby or John McLoughlin were until I started learning about commemoratives. If I were not a numismatist, I still might be in the dark about these men. Of course, I am making the perhaps unsupportable contention that such things are worth knowing.
Start by reading one reference, perhaps the book you are now holding in your hand, and then read what others have had to say on the subject. Before long commemoratives will come alive, and each one will have its own personality in your eyes; at least I found this to be true when I endeavored to learn as much as I could about the series.