Q.David Bowers
The Missouri Centennial was celebrated in 1921. A special commemorative half dollar was sold by means of large display advertisements in The Numismatist and elsewhere. By December 1921 anyone who cared to part with $1 had acquired an example. Orders were falling off, so an uplift in sales was accomplished by an unusual device.
Advertisements appearing at that time noted:
All of the unsold coins of the design previously illustrated in "The Numismatist" have been withdrawn from the market and returned to the United States Mint for recoinage .... A special issue of 5,000 of the coins containing the "Star 24" indice, none of which were sold or offered for sale up to this time, are now being placed on the market by the Sedalia Trust Co. of Sedalia, Missouri, official custodians of the Missouri Centennial Memorial Coins, and so long as the supply lasts will be sent postpaid to any address in the United States for $1 each. This offering of the limited number of this special mintage will soon be exhausted after which no more will be obtainable. If you want one or more of these beautiful souvenirs act quick ....
By means of this sales trick another 5,000 were sold.
One merchandising innovation usually follows another, so in the following year, 1922, when Alabama celebrated its centennial, 49,038 pieces of the regular design were distributed as well as 6,006 of a "special" design with a small "2x2" in the field. Again, history was repeated, and in the same year when commemorative half dollars and gold dollars were issued to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Ulysses S. Grant's birth, varieties were made with and without a tiny 5-pointed star in the obverse field. In order to have a truly complete collection, the numismatist was forced to buy two of each coin.
The Grant half dollars without stars were first offered for sale at $1 each. When all sales had been consummated, the coins were offered at a discount price of 75c each in lots of 10 or more. Varieties with the star in the field commanded an extra premium and were offered at $1.50 per coin.
In June 1923 the motion picture industry held a conclave. Issued for the event was the Monroe Doctrine Centennial half dollar, struck at the San Francisco Mint. 274,077 coins were distributed, an unusually large issue for the time. The pieces achieved a particularly wide circulation with the public, especially in California.
The next commemorative issue occurred in 1924 when the 300th anniversary of the settlement of the Huguenots and Walloons in America was celebrated. 142,080 coins were distributed.
In 1925 several commemorative half dollar issues appeared. The Lexington-Concord Sesquicentennial piece celebrated the 150th anniversary of the battles fought in colonial Massachusetts in 1775. On the obverse of each coin the famous Minuteman was shown. The 75th anniversary of the admission of California into the Union furnished the occasion for another commemorative half dollar. The obverse depicted a miner panning gold. The reverse showed a bear. In the same year Fort Vancouver celebrated its centennial with a commemorative half dollar. The Stone Mountain Memorial in Georgia furnished another occasion for a commemorative, and 1,314,709 pieces were eventually distributed.
In 1926 the 150th anniversary of American Independence provided the occasion for a commemorative half dollar and a quarter eagle. During the same year the first Oregon Trail Memorial half dollar was made. The Oregon series continued intermittently until 1939.
1927 brought the Vermont Sesquicentennial half dollar. In the following year, 1928, just 10,008 Hawaiian Sesquicentennial half dollars were made. The Hawaiian issue was not particularly popular with numismatists, so most were sold to residents of the Hawaiian Islands. Soon they became scarce.