Q. David Bowers
Senator Adams: "Who do you mean handled the issue?"
Mr. Hoffecker: "That is C. Frank Dunn, in Kentucky."
Senator Adams: "Who is he?"
Mr. Hoffecker: "Well, he was the man appointed to distribute those coins. That is as far as 1 know about him."
Senator Adams: "What is his business?" Mr. Hoffecker: "I understand he is a newspaper editor, but 1 did not get that information direct. They say he knew nothing about coins. He accepted so many orders and cashed checks and then could not fill them, that he returned the money and said he could not fill the orders. 1 saw somewhere an account of a couple of people threatening to sue him. The coins are corning out now in a different envelope-instead of being stamped 'Mr. C. Frank Dunn,' it is stamped 'Mrs. C. Frank Dunn.' I asked why that was, and was told that the general impression was it was on account of the threats of suits being filed."
After-Effects
The 1935 "small 1934" Boone situation had a dramatic and immediate impact on the coin. collecting fraternity. Numismatics would never be the same.
First, a number of other enterprising individuals and commissions considering the issuance of new commemorative half dollars immediately contemplated the profits to be made if the appearance could be given that an issue was sold out, thereby causing the price to rise on the collectors' market. Quantities held back could then be parceled out for profits far beyond the amounts originally thought possible.
Second, collectors, dealers, and speculators (the term investors was not as popular then) immediately determined that, if they missed out on the 1935 "small 1934" Boone issues at the original price, this was certainly not going to happen with other issues, so not only would they order one piece for a collection, they would also order many extras for investment purposes.
Because of left-over demand from earlier issues and the enthusiastic nature of the commemorative market in general during the first part of 1936, all of the 1936 pieces found buyers.
The story was different in 1937, when the mintage of Philadelphia coins was 15,010 pieces, Denver 7,506 coins, and San Francisco 5,006 examples. Eventually quantities of 5,200, 5,000, and 2,500, respectively, were melted of the three issues. In an effort to stimulate demand, several marketing strategies were tried.
Dunn publicly stated that 1937 would see the last of the Boone issues, implying that collectors would do well to complete their sets by ordering those currently offered. However, he did not keep his promise. C. Frank Dunn wrote to dealer Walter P. Nichols on May 25, 1937, stating that he wanted to sell coins in sets of one each from the Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco issues, not just the San Francisco coins, further noting: "I want to keep the D and S issues running even, as heretofore so we will wind up completely when the coins are sold and can proceed at once toward the purchase of the shrines in the Pioneer National Monument, to turn them over to the United States this fall if at all possible."
At first the 1937 Philadelphia coins were priced at $1.60 each and could be ordered individually, but after May 1937 ordering was only on the basis of $7.25 for a pair containing one each of the Philadelphia and Denver issues. The Denver issues were never priced separately. The San Francisco coins, of a mintage deliberately lower than the other two, were priced at $5.15 each, a profit, viewed by many as unconscionable, amounting to over 10 times the face value Dunn paid the Treasury for the coins. This offer apparently met with relatively few takers, so the pricing structure of 1937 Boone coins was rearranged so that the San Francisco coin was obtainable only as part of a three-piece set priced at $12.40. Despite all of these efforts, thousands of coins remained unsold, as noted.
Even though C. Frank Dunn had declared that no more Boone half dollars would be struck, in 1938 the Daniel Boone Bicentennial Commission ordered more coins from the Treasury, and 5,005, 5,005, and 5,006, respectively, were struck at the Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco mints. Seeking to do something to stimulate flagging sales, and probably with the expectation that Boone sets would be issued for many years thereafter if only the market could be counted upon, Dunn resorted to an age-old stratagem: discounting. The price of a setof three coins was nearly halved from the year before, and the 1938 sets were offered for $6.50 each.
On October 11, 1938, C. Frank Dunn advised collector H.J. McCloskey as follows: "Thank you for your order for one three-mint set of the 1938 Daniel Boone half dollar. According to the Mint the coins will be ready by the latter part of this month and will be sent promptly. The only 1937 D&S [coins] I have now, since the sale was wound up, is a few in my collection, which I would not sell for less than $25.00 a pair and really am not anxious at that." (Correspondence in the Bowers and Merena Galleries Reference Collection). Apparently, Dunn had his own definition for the word collection. As a synonym the term unsold inventory comes to mind!
The effort to sell 1938-dated sets proved largely a failure, for the commemorative marked, there were far more dissatisfied collectors than there were enthusiastic buyers, and, in any event, Dunn's reputation had sunk to the level of despicability. Only 2,100 1938 sets were eventually distributed, and it seems that a number of these were wholesaled through dealers. Many thousands of unsold 1938-dated Boone half dollars were melted.
Of the total of 600,000 Boone half dollars authorized by Congress early in the game, only 86,600 saw distribution, another sorry tale. Relatively few Boone half dollars were ever sold to the general public. From beginning to end the Boone half dollars were made for the exploitation of the collectors' market.
Collecting Boone Half Dollars
As years went by, a new generation of collectors replaced those active in the 1930s, and over a period of time the Boone scandal was forgotten, except by a few dedicated collectors and others who took the time to look through old issues of The Numismatist and the Numismatic Scrapbook. New buyers from the 1940s onward viewed the Boone coins as collectible items, which indeed they were , with certain issues having fascinatingly low issue quantities. Prices of all commemoratives, including early Boone issues, fell sharply after the commemorative market break in the sum-mer of 1936 and drifted downward until 1940-1941, after which the trend headed upward to levels never dreamed of during the height of earlier activity. By that time the market had widened considerably, and demand was greater than ever before.