Q. David Bowers
A 1950 Sales Offer
Around 1950 the Booker T. Washington Birthplace Memorial sent out the following notice to those who inquired as to the availability of sets. It is obvious that earlier dated coins were still available:
"We are very much pleased to have your inquiry on the Booker T. Washington Birthplace Memorial Coin. The purchase of this coin will serve as a means of helping to perpetuate the ideals and teachings of Booker T. Washington. We are indeed happy to have your understanding in this undertaking. The 1947, 1948, and 1949 issues are sold in sets only. The prices are as follows: 1947 $6.00; 1948 $7.50; 1949 $8.50; 1950 $8.50. Add 12 cents for each additional set for postage. We are in the position to supply any number of coins of the 1946 issue you desire from the Philadelphia and San Francisco mints at a cost of $1.00 each and from the Denver Mint at a cost of $1.50 each. Add 10 cents for postage, insurance and shipping charges for each coin up to three and one cent for each coin thereafter. 1946 sets are $3.80 postpaid." (From The Commemorative Trail, Fall-Winter 1990, page 38, item submitted by Helen and Don Carmody.)
Bebee Stamp & Coin Company advertised 1950 Booker T. Washington P-D-S sets for $8.50 each postpaid, stating they would be available about January 20, 1950. In 1950 the Commission came up with the idea of publicizing the half dollars as a fund-generating mechanism for the construction of hospitals and schools, and it was hoped that this altruistic motive would increase sales. In January 1950, 12,004 pieces were struck at Philadelphia, representing the total mintage (of which 6,000 were later melted), whereas during the same month an equivalent number of coins (of which 6,000 were later melted) were made at Denver. However, during. January and February the production of pieces in San Francisco amounted to a whopping 512,091. Created in 1950 were 12,000 P-D-S sets for collectors plus 500,000 coins for the hospital-school promotion. Unfortunately for the Commission, public interest was virtually nil.
In 1951 the same scenario was repeated, except that an extra quantity was made in Philadelphia. In January 1951 the Denver and San Francisco facilities each produced 12,004 pieces for inclusion in P-D-S sets (plus four odd coins for assay), whereas 60,013 coins were made at Philadelphia, followed by a supplemental coinage in August in Philadelphia of 450,069 pieces. All this effort translated into 12,000 1951- dated P-D-S sets for distribution to collectors plus nearly a half million extra 1951 Philadelphia coins. It was later revealed that 5,000 each of the Denver and San Francisco Mint pieces were melted. Prices of 1951 P-D-S sets varied. Bebee offered sets for $8.50 each in The Numismatist, January 1951, noting they would be delivered about January 20th. The Commission offered sets for $10 in a mailing to collectors. In October 1951 Bebee advised that "thousands of sets of 1948, 1949, 1950, and 1951 Booker T. Washington Memorial half dollars have been returned to the mints to be melted," and that now the price for 1951 sets was $10. with certainty. In the 1960s Stephen J. Ruddel, an Arlington, Virginia rare coin dealer, obtained thousands of hitherto undistributed sets and made a strong effort to popularize and distribute them to a new generation of numismatists, and undoubtedly many were sold this way.
Collecting Booker T. Washington Half Dollars
Of all commemorative half dollar issues produced up to this point in history, the Booker T. Washington half dollars were made with the least amount of care during the coining process at the mints, for at the time of release nearly all specimens were poorly defined on the obverse design and were laden with abrasions and bagmarks. Most examples seen in the numismatic market today are MS-60 to MS-63, mostly toward the bottom of that range. The typical coin has numerous abrasions and contact marks. Despite their relatively low mintages Booker T. Washington P-D-S sets have always been inexpensive.
GRADING SUMMARY: As noted, nearly all specimens show contact marks, friction, and/or graininess on Booker T. Washington's portrait, and this is usually true even of many coins slabbed as MS-65 (unless they are toned, in which case the observer can't tell if there is friction).
Commemorating: The life and accomplishments of educator Booker T. Washington
Obverse motif: Portrait of Booker T. Washington
Reverse motif: Hall of Fame and slave cabin
Authorization date: August 7, 1946
Date on coins: 1946
Date when coins were actually minted: 1946
Mints used: Philadelphia, Denver, San Francisco
Maximum quantity authorized: 5,000,000 (for entire issue 1946 and onward)
Total quantity minted (including assay coins ): 1,000,546 Philadelphia, 200,113 Denver, 500,279 San Francisco
Assay coins (included in above): 546 Philadelphia, 113 Denver, 279 San Francisco Quantity melted: 300,000 (author's estimate) Philadelphia, 150,000 (author's estimate) Denver, none (author's estimate) San Francisco!
Net number distributed (including assay coins): 700,546 more or less (author's estimate) Philadelphia, 50,000 (author's estimate) Denver, 500,279 (author's estimate) San Francisco
Issued by: Booker T. Washington Birthplace Memorial Commission, Inc. Rocky Mount,
Virginia (Dr. S.J. Phillips in chargex- Stack's, 12 West 46th Street, New York City, N.Y.
Standard original packaging: Paper envelopes; some in three-coin black cardboard holders, with or without paper backing publicizing the Booker T. Washington Birthplace as "A Practical Memorial" and the use of the coin proceeds, in 12 lines of type (another variety has a paper label with only the first three lines of the preceding inscription); Christmas cards and envelopes for single coins (two different winter scenes depicted); some coins were sold in cellophane envelopes, with glued seams; taped to a printed, folded piece of light cardboard (or folded piece of paper; rarer) titled Gems of Wisdom; one-coin. Cardboard holder with coin taped in place; four-coin unprinted piece of cardboard with coins taped in place, accompanied by a brochure; some 1946 coins were distributed as prizes in punchboards.
Official sale price: $1 Philadelphia, $1.50 Denver, and $1 (some later offered for $1.50) San Francisco. Mail orders were subject to 10¢ postage per coin.
Designer of obverse and reverse: Isaac Scott Hathaway
Interesting fact: The Booker T. Washington sets, with their multiplicity of varieties, were a rerun of the abusive issues of the 1930s. Note concerning estimated melting and distribution quantities: After the mintage of 1946- 1951 Booker T. Washington sets was completed, 1,581,631 unsold pieces were melted. Included were sets of three coins as well as quantities of larger-mintage individual issues. No account was kept of the quantities melted of particular issues. Many 1946 Philadelphia and San Francisco coins were placed into circulation for face value, and it is likely that some (but a smaller amount) of Denver coins were circulated as well. The author's estimates of quantities melted and distributed are guesswork. The author's total estimated quantities for melted coins approximate the 1,581,631 quantity said to have been melted.