Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Two Classic Commemorative Half Dollars With a Checkered Past
Many collectors are turned off by some of the modern commemorative coins because of the surcharges, which add to the price, inappropriate dates for the celebrations and ordering issues from the mint. For example, the Korean War commemorative dollar was issued on the 38th anniversary of the armistice. Why was the 38th anniversary chosen? Because the line between North and South Korea is on the 38th parallel.
Today’s collectors are frequently disappointed when the often feeble mint on-line ordering system crashes leaving many collectors with wasted time and infuriating disappointment. To many, it seems that the mint is all too eager to supply coins to dealers and flippers while collectors are left to pay exorbitant prices to get the mint’s latest “must haves.”
There was plenty of disappointment and frustrations during the issue periods for a number of the “classic commemoratives” too. In those days the mint system supplied the coins to fund raising groups at face value. Those groups were able to set the issue prices for the coins and the mode of their distribution. This system led to numerous inequities in the way the coins were sold. Two such issues were Hudson, New York commemorative half dollar which was issued in 1935 and the Cincinnati commemorative half dollar set that was issued in 1936.
The Hudson Commemorative Half Dollar
Hudson, New York is a small city that is about 120 miles north of New York City. It is currently a popular getaway spot for New Yorkers that is located on the Hudson River. In 1935, the town celebrated the 150th anniversary of its founding. Given that the population was 12,337 at the time, it seemed a privately issued town medal would have been more appropriate than a commemorative half dollar issued by the United States Mint. Yet the New York State delegation to Congress was large and influential, and like the City of Rochester, Hudson got its commemorative half dollar.
The authorized mintage was modest at only 10,000 pieces. The obverse featured rendition of Henry Hudson’s ship the Half Moon with a fanciful half-moon above the stern of the vessel. These devices were surrounded by the statutorily required words, “United States of America,” “In God we trust” and “Half Dollar.” The reverse featured a modified version of the Hudson City Seal. King Neptune is riding backward on a whale, spouting water, with a trident in his hand. In the background, there is a mermaid blowing into a conch shell. These devices are surrounded by “E. Pluribus Unum,” “City of Hudson NY” and the city motto, “Ed Decus ET Pretium Recti,” which translates to “Both the honor and reward of the righteous.”
Given the relatively low authorized mintage and the popularity of commemorative coins in the mid-1930s, the coins generated a lot of interest. The Mayor of Hudson picked The First National Bank and Trust Company of Hudson to sell the coins, and John R. Evens was picked to handle the bank’s sales. The issue price was set at $1 plus 18 cents for registered mail and 3 cents for each coin for a total of $1.21.
Five days after the sales were opened, Evens announced that the entire issue had been sold. He claimed that there had been a large number of people who had placed pre-orders. Collectors were infuriated.
A month later, the retail price reached $12.50 per coin, which was high price during the Great Depression. A few months later, the prices settled back to between $4.50 to $7.00 per coin, which was still a significate increase over the issue price.
Later, a dirty little secret came to light. Julius Guttag, who was a partner in the Guttag Brothers coin shop in New York City, had purchased 7,500 pieces for 95 cents apiece. In addition, Herbert W. Carcabla of St. Augustine, Florida, had purchased 1,000 pieces for the same price.
A discount of 5 cents a coin might trivial until one looks at the numbers in the context of the times. Five cents times 8,500 coins equals $425.00. That does not seem like much until you consider that the average family income in 1935 was $1,622. The minimum wage weekly income was set at $12 to $15 per week. Given those numbers, $425.00 looks a lot bigger. Add to that the possibility that more money may have changed hands, you will understand the incentive for the “pre-orders” that denied most collectors the opportunity to buy these coins at the issue price.
The Cincinnati Music Center Commemorative Half Dollar
Commemorative coins have frequently been issued in conjunction with anniversaries and celebrations. Funds earned from the sale of those coins helped to cover the cost of the event. The Cincinnati Music Center Commemorative Half Dollar celebrated only greed and influence peddling.
Stephen Foster was a noted composer, but he had nothing to do with Cincinnati when he was writing music, and a “music festival” was not held when the coin was issued. Instead coin collector and business promoter, Thomas Melish, pocketed a lot of money and did what he could to make the selling prices as high as possible.
Cincinnati did have an illustrious musical past. In 1873 George Ward Nichols organized the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra with Theodore Thomas as its conductor. In 1878 Nichols became the director of the Cincinnati College of Music. Later he took on the title of “Musical Missionary” when he took the orchestra on tour throughout the United States. The tour brought symphonic music to many people for the first time.
There could have been a case for issuing a commemorative half dollar that celebrated the 50th anniversary of the orchestra in 1923 with Theodore Thomas on the obverse, but that was not destined to happen. Instead coin promoter Melish pushed for a design that featured Stephen Foster on the obverse and a female figure on the reverse playing a lyre and the phrase “Cincinnati a Music Center of America.”
Stephen Foster wrote a number of familiar numbers in the 19th century including “Oh Susannah,” “Old Kentucky Home” and “Old Black Joe,” but he spent most of his life in Pittsburg and New York. Foster spent three years in Cincinnati, but he worked as a bookkeeper for his brother’s business. There were no musical celebrations in Cincinnati in 1936. In short, the coin commemorated nothing.
Thomas Melish, who may have been the only member of the Cincinnati Musical Center Commemorative Coin Association, pulled out all of the promotional stops. He pushed a bill through Congress which authorized issues of commemorative coins that would be struck at the three mints that were open at the time, Denver, Philadelphia and San Francisco. He advocated for mintages of 10,000 at Philadelphia and 2,000 each from Denver and San Francisco. Fortunately Congress derailed that rarity creating scheme and set the mintages at 5,000 for each mint.
Melish made arrangements to have the first 200 coins produced at each mint to be caught in gloved hands as the coins were struck. These pieces were placed in black cardboard holders with openings for each of the three coins. An official document was pasted to the back of each holder. Documentation included the number of the set indicating order in which each coin had been struck, the signature of a notary public, his seal and Thomas Melish’s signature. These sets were sent to President Franklin Roosevelt, selected members of Congress and Melish’s close friends. The coins were ordinary Mint State coins with no special finish.
Regular coins were sold in PDS sets for $7.75, but only a small number of collectors were able to buy them at that price. The issue was soon “oversubscribed” and the price quickly rose to $45 and ultimately, $75. These pieces were issued at a time when the commemorative coin craze was at its height in the mid-1930s. Melish attempted to double down on his money making scheme in 1937 by asking Congress to issue a second group of Cincinnati Music Center coins, but fortunately that bill failed to pass.
As you can see, things were not that different in “the good old days.” Worldly promoters were often able to find ways to maximize their profits at the expense of the hobbyist.
Today’s collectors are frequently disappointed when the often feeble mint on-line ordering system crashes leaving many collectors with wasted time and infuriating disappointment. To many, it seems that the mint is all too eager to supply coins to dealers and flippers while collectors are left to pay exorbitant prices to get the mint’s latest “must haves.”
There was plenty of disappointment and frustrations during the issue periods for a number of the “classic commemoratives” too. In those days the mint system supplied the coins to fund raising groups at face value. Those groups were able to set the issue prices for the coins and the mode of their distribution. This system led to numerous inequities in the way the coins were sold. Two such issues were Hudson, New York commemorative half dollar which was issued in 1935 and the Cincinnati commemorative half dollar set that was issued in 1936.
The Hudson Commemorative Half Dollar
Hudson, New York is a small city that is about 120 miles north of New York City. It is currently a popular getaway spot for New Yorkers that is located on the Hudson River. In 1935, the town celebrated the 150th anniversary of its founding. Given that the population was 12,337 at the time, it seemed a privately issued town medal would have been more appropriate than a commemorative half dollar issued by the United States Mint. Yet the New York State delegation to Congress was large and influential, and like the City of Rochester, Hudson got its commemorative half dollar.
The authorized mintage was modest at only 10,000 pieces. The obverse featured rendition of Henry Hudson’s ship the Half Moon with a fanciful half-moon above the stern of the vessel. These devices were surrounded by the statutorily required words, “United States of America,” “In God we trust” and “Half Dollar.” The reverse featured a modified version of the Hudson City Seal. King Neptune is riding backward on a whale, spouting water, with a trident in his hand. In the background, there is a mermaid blowing into a conch shell. These devices are surrounded by “E. Pluribus Unum,” “City of Hudson NY” and the city motto, “Ed Decus ET Pretium Recti,” which translates to “Both the honor and reward of the righteous.”
Given the relatively low authorized mintage and the popularity of commemorative coins in the mid-1930s, the coins generated a lot of interest. The Mayor of Hudson picked The First National Bank and Trust Company of Hudson to sell the coins, and John R. Evens was picked to handle the bank’s sales. The issue price was set at $1 plus 18 cents for registered mail and 3 cents for each coin for a total of $1.21.
Five days after the sales were opened, Evens announced that the entire issue had been sold. He claimed that there had been a large number of people who had placed pre-orders. Collectors were infuriated.
A month later, the retail price reached $12.50 per coin, which was high price during the Great Depression. A few months later, the prices settled back to between $4.50 to $7.00 per coin, which was still a significate increase over the issue price.
Later, a dirty little secret came to light. Julius Guttag, who was a partner in the Guttag Brothers coin shop in New York City, had purchased 7,500 pieces for 95 cents apiece. In addition, Herbert W. Carcabla of St. Augustine, Florida, had purchased 1,000 pieces for the same price.
A discount of 5 cents a coin might trivial until one looks at the numbers in the context of the times. Five cents times 8,500 coins equals $425.00. That does not seem like much until you consider that the average family income in 1935 was $1,622. The minimum wage weekly income was set at $12 to $15 per week. Given those numbers, $425.00 looks a lot bigger. Add to that the possibility that more money may have changed hands, you will understand the incentive for the “pre-orders” that denied most collectors the opportunity to buy these coins at the issue price.
The Cincinnati Music Center Commemorative Half Dollar
Commemorative coins have frequently been issued in conjunction with anniversaries and celebrations. Funds earned from the sale of those coins helped to cover the cost of the event. The Cincinnati Music Center Commemorative Half Dollar celebrated only greed and influence peddling.
Stephen Foster was a noted composer, but he had nothing to do with Cincinnati when he was writing music, and a “music festival” was not held when the coin was issued. Instead coin collector and business promoter, Thomas Melish, pocketed a lot of money and did what he could to make the selling prices as high as possible.
Cincinnati did have an illustrious musical past. In 1873 George Ward Nichols organized the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra with Theodore Thomas as its conductor. In 1878 Nichols became the director of the Cincinnati College of Music. Later he took on the title of “Musical Missionary” when he took the orchestra on tour throughout the United States. The tour brought symphonic music to many people for the first time.
There could have been a case for issuing a commemorative half dollar that celebrated the 50th anniversary of the orchestra in 1923 with Theodore Thomas on the obverse, but that was not destined to happen. Instead coin promoter Melish pushed for a design that featured Stephen Foster on the obverse and a female figure on the reverse playing a lyre and the phrase “Cincinnati a Music Center of America.”
Stephen Foster wrote a number of familiar numbers in the 19th century including “Oh Susannah,” “Old Kentucky Home” and “Old Black Joe,” but he spent most of his life in Pittsburg and New York. Foster spent three years in Cincinnati, but he worked as a bookkeeper for his brother’s business. There were no musical celebrations in Cincinnati in 1936. In short, the coin commemorated nothing.
Thomas Melish, who may have been the only member of the Cincinnati Musical Center Commemorative Coin Association, pulled out all of the promotional stops. He pushed a bill through Congress which authorized issues of commemorative coins that would be struck at the three mints that were open at the time, Denver, Philadelphia and San Francisco. He advocated for mintages of 10,000 at Philadelphia and 2,000 each from Denver and San Francisco. Fortunately Congress derailed that rarity creating scheme and set the mintages at 5,000 for each mint.
Melish made arrangements to have the first 200 coins produced at each mint to be caught in gloved hands as the coins were struck. These pieces were placed in black cardboard holders with openings for each of the three coins. An official document was pasted to the back of each holder. Documentation included the number of the set indicating order in which each coin had been struck, the signature of a notary public, his seal and Thomas Melish’s signature. These sets were sent to President Franklin Roosevelt, selected members of Congress and Melish’s close friends. The coins were ordinary Mint State coins with no special finish.
Regular coins were sold in PDS sets for $7.75, but only a small number of collectors were able to buy them at that price. The issue was soon “oversubscribed” and the price quickly rose to $45 and ultimately, $75. These pieces were issued at a time when the commemorative coin craze was at its height in the mid-1930s. Melish attempted to double down on his money making scheme in 1937 by asking Congress to issue a second group of Cincinnati Music Center coins, but fortunately that bill failed to pass.
As you can see, things were not that different in “the good old days.” Worldly promoters were often able to find ways to maximize their profits at the expense of the hobbyist.
Comments
Steve
But with that said, I understand why others do choose to collect them. For some collectors, it’s not only about money or rarity. They collect for the beauty, artistry, and the story behind each of these modern Commems. There are no right or wrong numismatic items to collect!