Q. David Bowers
(Also see preceding listings)
Dates on coins: 1938 (also 1934)
Date when coins were actually minted: 1938
Mints used: Philadelphia, Denver, San Francisco
Maximum quantity authorized: 600,000 (for total of all issues 1934 and onward)
Total quantity minted (including assay coins): 5,005 Philadelphia, 5,005 Denver, 5,006
San Francisco
Assay coins (included in above): 5 Philadelphia, 5 Denver, 6 San Francisco
Quantity melted: 2,905 Philadelphia, 2,905 Denver, 2,906 San Francisco
Net number distributed (including assay coins ): 2, 100 Philadelphia, 2,100 Denver, 2,100 San Francisco
Standard original packaging: Paper envelopes; some shipped in rubber-stamped cardboard holders of the insert type; also see text under 1935 P-D-S Boone sets
Official sale price: $6.50 per set of three
Interesting fact: This was the last set in the Boone series.
(average market prices)
1940 MS-63 to 64 $23
1945 MS-63 to 64 $60
1950 MS-63 to 64 $70
1955 MS-63 to 64 $150
1960 MS-63 to 64 $325
1965 MS-63 to 64 $350
1970 MS-63 to 64 $285
1975 MS-63 to 64 $610
1980 MS-63 to 64 $2,500
1985 MS-63 to 64 $1,300
1986 MS-60 $1,350, MS-63 $1,450, MS-64 $1,900, MS-65 $3,800
1990 (spring) MS-60 $760, MS-63 $1,200, MS-64 $1,550, MS-65 $3,200
1990 (December) Ms-60 $760, MS-63 $1,000, MS-64 $1,300, MS-65 $1,900
Notes: To find the price of a single coin, divide by three (and add a small premium, for sets usually sell for slightly less on a per-coin basis than single specimens). Most sets in existence today are in the higher grade ranges.
The Continuing Story of Commemoratives
As a result of the autumn 1935 scandal involving the distribution of the 1935 Boone sets with "small 1934" and the immediate run up in price of the low-mintage Denver and San Francisco mint coins from $3.70 to $50, then to $90, the commemorative boom was launched. It was just a matter of time after November 1935 that the notion that purchasers of commemorative half dollars could automatically make windfall profits was spread all over the United States, not only among collectors but among the general public as well. More and more collectors and speculators got into the game, and before long the advertising pages of The Numismatist swelled to unprecedented proportions, as an active market developed and expanded. Another publication, the Numismatic Scrapbook magazine, new on the scene, became an immediate success, as its monthly issues contained timely news on commemorative releases (provided by Harry X Boosel, Washington correspondent), prices, and the aftermarket together with many offerings to buy and sell. Many members of the general public became interested in commemoratives and then later explored other areas of numismatics, increasing the collector population by the end of 1936 to at least double or triple what it was just a year earlier.
As it turned out, the commemorative boom would fizzle by late summer 1936, scarcely a half year after it began, but in the meantime vast changes had been wrought to the coin collecting scene. The tenor of the later market was quite unlike the leisurely pace of activities prior to the autumn of 1935.
At the same time other developments contributed to the increase in coin collecting, particularly the launching and popularization by Wayte Raymond of The Standard Catalogue of United States Coins, which for the first time in numismatic history provided a regularly issued listing of varieties and current market prices. Before this time Scott and others had produced catalogues on an erratic schedule, with updates typically many years apart, and collectors and others had to rely on dealer advertisements and auction prices realized in order to formulate an idea of what coins were worth. Now the Standard Catalogue made it possible to gain such information by simply turning a few pages.
Cardboard holders, popularized by Wayte Raymond and eventually produced and sold by others as well, made it possible to house a collection of commemorative or other coins in logical order so that they could be viewed and enjoyed while the pieces were protected by transparent celluloid slides. A few years later Whitman would launch its so-called "penny boards," distributed nationally through drugstores, hobby outlets, and other places, and inspire countless millions of Americans to look through their pocket change in an effort to complete sets of Lincoln cents, Liberty nickels, and other series.
After the commemorative boom faded, interest in numismatics was sustained and furthered by dealers and collectors who made specialties of other series from half cents and large cents to gold. The commemorative market itself waned, and following the last coinage in 1939 no further issues were produced until after World War II ended. Commemoratives in autumn 1935 changed the numismatic market from a relatively obscure pursuit to a popular nationwide hobby, an endeavor which reached such proportions by the 1980s that it was fashionable to call it an industry. C. Frank Dunn of the Boone Bicentennial Commission started it all, and, although he was generally viewed as a scoundrel at the time, any list of people who measurably changed the world of numismatics must rightfully include his name near the top.