Q. David Bowers
"The cost of coining (recoining) silver dollars is approximately $10 per thousand. A table showing the recoinage by fiscal years [July 1 to June 30] of silver dollars under the act of April 23, 1918, follows:
"$19,043,000 recoined in fiscal year 1921. "$92,388,473 recoined during fiscal year 1922. "$110,715,000 recoined during fiscal year 1923 "$11,870,000 recoined during fiscal year 1924. "$18,308,000 recoined during fiscal year 1925. "$11,432,700 recoined during fiscal year 1926. "$4,456,900 recoined during fiscal year 1927. "$2,018,649 recoined during fiscal year 1928. "Total recoined: $270,232,722
"(Fiscal year ending June 30)"
The Year 1928 in History
Republican presidential candidate Herbert Hoover, a statesman and businessman who had a reputation for accomplishments, ran against Democratic candidate Governor Alfred E. Smith of New York, a Catholic who was in favor of repealing Prohibition. Smith's religion was attacked in a negative campaign. Hoover's statement that progress was changing from a full dinner pail to the full garage was misquoted by his opponent as saying "A chicken in every pot and two cars in every garage." Hoover won by a landslide. Senator Joseph T. Robinson of Arkansas was the Democratic vice presidential candidate. In 1936 Robinson would be the subject of the obverse design on a commemorative half dollar (the 1936-dated Robinson-Arkansas, released in early 1937). On August 27, 1928 the Kellogg-Briand Pact was signed by world leaders, denouncing war. Ironically, in this year the first steps were taken by Josef Stalin toward what may have been the worst atrocity in recorded history, the Soviet dekulakization and terror famine of 1929-33, to break the peasant opposition to communism. Fifteen million people are said to have died in this assault on humanity, including several hundred thousand Jews.
The economy was booming, and soaring stock prices led the way. Pledging their assets and buying on margin, many citizens contemplated their paper profits. The Bank of America was the country's largest banking institution, and the Continental-Illinois Bank & Trust Company, created by merging two large banks in Chicago, dominated in the Midwest. Decades later, the Chicago bank experienced hard times and liquidated over a million silver dollars held in its vaults, creating what numismatists later called the Continental Bank Hoard, which was marketed through Ed Milas.
On May 25, Amelia Earhart and two companions departed from Boston, becoming the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean, a feat many men had already accomplished. The German dirigible Graf Zeppelin arrived at Lakehurst, New Jersey on October 15, 1928 from Friedrichshafen, Germany, completing a 6,630 mile flight in 121 hours. These zeppelins were very luxurious and, among other things, had a grand piano on board with a frame made of aluminum rather than the standard cast iron. Zeppelin flights to Europe and South America were common, but the crash of the Hindenburg in Lakehurst, New Jersey in 1937 would end it all. A set of U.S. stamps was issued in 1930 commemorating the Graf Zeppelin.
The antibacterial property of penicillin was discovered, and soon caused a revolution in the medical treatment of infection.
On May. 11, the first scheduled television program was broadcast by WGY in Schenectady, New York. The Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) was founded by William S. Paley. On radio, the 15-minute Amos'n Andy Show made its debut on March 19, 1928 in Chicago. The next year the show would be broadcast nationally and soon captured about two-thirds of the available radio audience, 40 million listeners. Theatres, seeking to maintain their trade, interrupted their programs to broadcast Amos and Andy each evening. The duo would change to a half-hour weekly broadcast in 1943. watt Disney introduced Mickey Mouse in Plane Crazy, a black and white cartoon, Disney Productions' first release. Galloping Gaucho and Steamboat Willie soon followed, ,the latter featuring sound. George Gershwin composed An American in Paris. Popular songs included Silver Moon, I'll Get By, Carolina Moon, Sweet Lorraine, and Button Up Your Overcoat. Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H: Lawrence was published privately, gaining a great reputation over the years in the underground for the "naughty" actions it described. (By the 1960s, however, the book would seem tame in comparison to common novels available at newsstands and drugstores.)
On June 24 the French franc was devalued from a U.S. money equivalent of 19.3 cents to 3.92 cents, effectively erasing France's national debt, but causing even greater losses to anyone holding the currency, By this time Europeans distrusted paper money and instead sought to keep their holdings in coins, precious metals, and other tangible goods of ready exchange value.
On the numismatic scene, collectors scrambled to get their share of 10,000 Hawaiian Sesquicentennial commemorative half dollars distributed at $2 each from Honolulu. Relatively few were successful, and soon the coins were selling for $3 to $5 each. In 1928, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing developed new small-size paper money, to be circulated beginning in July 1929, ending the large-size format in use since the Civil War.