Q. David Bowers
From the Commission's Files
The files of the Commission of Fine Arts trace the steps taken during the change from the Keck designs to those of Hathaway:
October 1, 1946: Leland Howard, acting director of the Mint, forwarded models of Keck's design to Gilmore D. Clarke, chairman of the Commission, noting: "It is the opinion of this Bureau [Mint] that the background on the obverse will have to be raised in order to meet the requirements of our coinage presses."
October 4, 1946: Howard advised H.P. Caemmerer, secretary of the Commission, as follows: "Mr. Phillips of the Booker T. Washington Birthplace Memorial called me on the phone yesterday and said that he was flying to Washington with new models of the Booker T. Washington commemorative coin. Mr. Phillips delivered the models to this office in damaged condition, and without review I am sending them to you so that your Commission can consider them at its meeting today .... When we submit models to you for your comments upon the artistic merits of the design, we do not want you to think that we are in any way responsible for the design .... "
October 4, 1946: (from the minutes of the Commission meeting that day): "The Commission inspected the models. They felt that the head of Booker T. Washington on the obverse of the set submitted by Mr. Phillips was better than that on Mr. Keck's model, at least so far as likeness is concerned. The models submitted by Mr. Phillips are quite flat. It was understood that they were made by an instructor at the Tuskegee Institute. The reverse of the two sets of models was quite similar as to design, portraying some lettering, the cabin in which Booker T. Washington was born as a slave and the Hall of Fame, New York City, where he is commemorated. The Commission felt it would make a better coin to omit the two buildings as portrayed, since the model reduced to half dollar size would practically wipe out the design of the building. However, Mr. Phillips said his Association is most anxious to show the buildings, since it illustrates the great opportunities there are in the United States for poor people to reach distinction. It was thereupon suggested that the two buildings in stylized form might appear satisfactory, and a sketch to illustrate this was given to Mr. Phillips. A new model for the reverse is to be made accordingly .... "
October 7, 1946: Chairman Clarke wrote to Acting Director Howard to approve the new model submitted by Phillips, in preference to the Keck model. Concerning the reverse, Clarke said that Phillips had been given a sketch (presumably to give to Isaac Scott Hathaway, who is not mentioned by name in Commission records) showing how the reverse could be done with buildings in stylized form, and: "The lettering on the models appears somewhat flat, perhaps too much for minting purposes .... "
Production and Distribution in 1946
In December 1946 the Philadelphia Mint struck 1,000,000 Booker T. Washington half dollars for distribution, plus 546 for assay, whereas in the same month 200,000 (plus 113 for assay) were made at Denver and 500,000 (plus 279 for assay) at San Francisco, a total quantity equal to 200,000 P-D-S sets plus hundreds of thousands of extra Philadelphia Mint coins.
Dr. S.J. Phillips stated that orders for Booker T. Washington half dollars would go toward paying for a "Service Memorial" to be established at the famous educator's birthplace "to commemorate his life and to perpetuate his ideals and teachings." The Booker T. Washington Birthplace Memorial, located on 224 acres of land in Rocky Mount, Virginia, had its own postal cancellation as Booker Washington Birthplace, Virginia beginning in 1948.1 Through the efforts of Phillips a number of contributors, the bottler of Royal Crown Cola prominent among them, helped develop trade and industrial training for blacks at the Birthplace and in Roanoke, Virginia, aided by a $15 million grant from the State of Virginia and by letters endorsing the project from the governors of 42 states.
The issuing commission set about distributing the pieces but soon learned that it was difficult to make much if any money by selling single coins and sets here and there. There was no way to effectively reach the general public, and the commission had no credentials with coin collectors. Even so, thousands of P-D-S sets were distributed to numismatists. An announcement in The Numismatist, January 1947, invited collectors to order 1946 sets directly from the Booker T. Washington Birthplace Memorial for $1 each for Philadelphia and San Francisco coins and $1.50 for Denver coins, plus 10¢ postage per coin. (This notice appeared on p. 103. On p.111 of the same issue, Irving M. Page, a Maryland collector, wrote to suggest that the Booker T. Washington issues were ill-advised and would be subject to abuses much as the serial coins of the 1930s.)
Apparently, some 1946 Philadelphia Mint coins were placed into circulation, or individual buyers spent them, for soon it was not uncommon for merchants and bank tellers to spot occasional pieces in change. Dr. S.J. Phillips had envisioned that 15 million black people in the United States would within a period of three months snap up the entire 1946 issue for $1 per coin, but in actuality few members of the public, black or otherwise, were interested.
Realizing that working through an established coin dealer might furnish the solution to achieving hoped-for sales and profits and recognizing that the Commission had been able to sell but a small quantity of the 1946 coins and P-D-S sets at a premium, the Commission made an arrangement with Stack's, the New York City rare coin firm which had distributed Arkansas sets in 1937, to assist in the distribution of the 1946 Booker T. Washington issue. In The Numismatist, February 1947, Stack's announced: "Important Notice! We have been appointed authorized agents of the Booker T. Washington Commemorative Half Dollar. The following prices will prevail: Philadelphia Mint $1.00, San Francisco Mint $1.00, Denver Mint $1.50. Please include 10¢ postage for first coin and 5¢ for each additional coin or set ordered.... This commission price applies to both collectors and dealers."
Most Booker T. Washington half dollars were handled carelessly during the minting and shipping process. Many complaints resulted. Typical is that of F .H. Hisken, a Seattle collector whose comments appeared in the February 1947 issue of The Numismatist: "We recently received ten sets of the new Booker T. Washington commemorative half dollars, and after examining them, promptly returned them to the Commission. Every single one of them was bruised and nicked, and, in particular, damages appeared on the right jaw which is slightly in relief. I can see no reason for sending out commemorative coins in such condition. There is enough premium being charged to justify special handling of these coins, at least on the pieces which are being sold to collectors."