Q. David Bowers
Mintage and Distribution
David M. Bullowa pointed out that eight obverse and six reverse dies were used to produce the 1922 Grant half dollars and that records kept at the Mint for the combined total struck from the obverse and reverse dies amounted to 117,685 pieces. However, the annual Mint report gave the net coinage as 100,061, leaving what Bullowa called a "wastage of over 17,000 pieces." It is difficult to envision the Mint striking such a huge quantity of pieces flawed or improperly coined, so perhaps there is some other explanation that has not come to light. Anthony Swiatek and Walter Breen raised the possibility that perhaps just one obverse was used for the "star" half dollar and at most one or two for the "plain" variety. This hypothesis, if correct, would lead to the further question: Why would the Mint make dies that were not used?
Today it is generally accepted that 95,055 without-star halves and 5,006 with-star pieces were minted. The with-star issue was minted first.
The pieces were available for sale in April 1922. The initial price was $1 each with or without star, a figure changed in December 1922 to 75 cents for the "plain" variety (when purchased in lots of 10 or more) and $1.50 for the "star" issue. Orders were taken until January 1, 1923, at which time it was announced that the books would be closed. A generous number of the half dollars went to collectors. The general public was apathetic. Nearly all of the gold coins (see later entry under gold commemoratives) went to collectors.
Readers of The Numismatist and other coin publications were requested to direct their remittances to Hugh L. Nichols, committee chairman, who lived in Batavia, Ohio. Sales were satisfactory, although not up to expectations, and 750 Grant half dollars with "star" and 27,650 "plain" half dollars were melted, leaving net distributions of 4,250 "star" and 67,350 "plain" pieces.
Writing in 1923 New York City dealer Thomas L. Elder commented: (The Numismatist, May 1923, p. 200.)"We had Grant half dollars in our window on 35th Street until they were tarnished nearly black, and we sold precious few of them. They were looked at by thousands, yet 25 people did not buy in the months they were exhibited.... Since [Farran Zerbe, writing an earlier article in The Numismatist] thinks that souvenir half dollars at $1 apiece are not dear, and if he wishes to add further to his collection of our recent issues of that great Civil War general, I can give him an address where he can get several hundred more at 74 cents per coin. How can anybody say that somebody is not badly stuck who bought these several hundred at $1 and offered them at less than 74 cents?"
"Forgotten Intentions"
The Philadelphia Inquirer told how the money from the Grant coin sales would be used. (Undated article quoted by B. Max Mehl, 1937. in The Commemorative Coins of the United States. p. 14.)
"Profits arising from this enterprise are to be devoted to constructing a modern highway for five miles outside of the Grant birthplace and further to erect a Community Building in Georgetown, which was the home of Grant at the time he was appointed to West Point. This little village is a few miles from his birthplace and is the county seat of Brown County, containing a few thousand inhabitants, and presenting much of the same appearance as at the time General Grant left it, never to return. Largely settled by Southern people, it has more the appearance of a Virginia county seat than of a Northern county town. In spite of its small population it contributed 12 general officers to the Civil War and more than 100 officers of other ranks.
"This is an unusual memorial, and while it is not customary for Congress to assist in the erection of a purely local building, the manner in which it is accomplished draws nothing from the federal treasury. It is assumed that the coins in question will provide an amount ample for the two purposes, which would mean that they would sell for about 200% premium. Georgetown and Point Pleasant owe all of their fame to the fact that the name of General Grant is associated with them. Doubtless coin collectors will be glad to have these new specimens, not only to assist a worthy cause, but as souvenirs of the great captain of our Civil War, whose fame grows constantly as years pass on, and whom the victorious General Foch says he took as his model in the recent World War."
Decades later in 1989 Ric Leichtung, a collector of commemorative coins, visited the Grant sites in Ohio and contributed a three-page article, "Forgotten Intentions," on his findings to The Nurnismatist. In Point Pleasant he found the building and fence pictured on the reverse of the coins to be poorly maintained, the house in disrepair and with peeling paint. Wondering about the memorial "community buildings" which were to have been erected in Bethel and Georgetown and the five-mile road to have been laid from New Richmond to Point Pleasant, per the original legislation which authorized the coins, he endeavored to locate these but learned that they didn't exist. The only buildings around were those which were standing long before the commemorative coins were planned: Grant's birthplace, in disrepair as noted, and in Georgetown a schoolhouse which the president had attended as a boy, a structure now with boarded-up windows and premises overgrown with weeds.
Collecting Grant Half Dollars
The addition of the star to create varieties to stimulate sales was an idea not appreciated by numismatists, and many criticisms ensued. Notwithstanding this situation, by the end of the decade of the 1920s the 1922 Grant "star" half dollar had emerged as the most valuable variety in the series.
The finish on the surface of Grant half dollars, even on well preserved Uncirculated pieces, is quite "rustic" and shows numerous raised die finish lines and other Mint preparation marks. Further, most specimens are lightly struck on the center of the obverse. These factors combine to make it extremely difficult to differentiate minute gradations among Mint State coins, and even grading experts are apt to differ measurably from each other when it comes to rendering opinions.
The 1922 Grant "star" half dollar in Mint State is one of the very rarest pieces of the series simply because the mintage was low and most pieces did not sell to collectors. The issue has been unappreciated in recent times, although decades ago it stood out as the most expensive in the commemorative half dollar field. Even the "plain" variety with its much higher mintage is very difficult to obtain in higher Mint State levels, although examples in the MS-60 to the MS-63 range are encountered frequently.