United States | |
| Value | 50 cents (0.50US dollars) |
|---|---|
| Mass | 12.5 g |
| Diameter | 30.61 mm (1.20 in) |
| Thickness | 2.15 mm (0.08 in) |
| Edge | Reeded |
| Composition |
|
| Silver | 0.36169 troy oz |
| Years of minting | 1921 |
| Mintage | 50,028 with 28 pieces for theAssay Commission (29,600 melted) |
| Mint marks | None, all pieces struck at thePhiladelphia Mint without mint mark |
| Obverse | |
 | |
| Design | Bust ofDaniel Boone |
| Designer | Robert Ingersoll Aitken |
| Design date | 1921 |
| Reverse | |
 | |
| Design | Boone with a Native American |
| Designer | Robert Ingersoll Aitken |
| Design date | 1921 |
TheMissouri Centennial half dollar is acommemorativefifty-cent piece struck by theUnited States Mint in 1921. It was designed byRobert Ingersoll Aitken. TheUS state ofMissouri wanted acommemorative coin to mark its centennial that year. Legislation for such a coin passed through Congress without opposition and was signed by PresidentWarren G. Harding on hisinauguration day, March 4, 1921. The federalCommission of Fine Arts hired Aitken to design the coin, which depictedDaniel Boone on both sides. The reverse design, showing Boone with a Native American, has been interpreted as symbolizing the displacement of the Indians by white settlers.
To increase sales, a portion of the issue was produced with the mark 2★4, symbolic of Missouri being the 24th state. Although admired for the design, the coins did not sell as well as hoped, and almost 60 percent were returned to thePhiladelphia Mint for melting. There are fewer coins with 2★4 than without, but they remain near-equal in value.
The State of Missouri, admitted tothe Union in 1821 as part of theMissouri Compromise, wanted a commemorative coin for sale at the Missouri Centennial Exposition and State Fair, to be held inSedalia from August 8 to 20, 1921.[1] Legislation for such a half dollar was introduced in theSenate by that state'sSelden P. Spencer on January 20, 1921, the bill being designated S. 4893.[2] It was referred to the Committee on Banking and Currency.[2] The bill was reported to the full Senate by Connecticut'sGeorge P. McLean on January 25 with an amendment reducing the authorized mintage from 500,000 to 250,000 and a recommendation that it pass. Vice PresidentThomas R. Marshall, who was presiding over the Senate, asked if there was objection to its passage. The Minority Leader, DemocratOscar Underwood of Alabama, said he did not think there would be objection, but that the bill should be read first. Idaho SenatorWilliam E. Borah stated he would object if there was to be discussion of it, as the Senate had not hadmorning business in ten days. Borah asked McLean if he expected there would be objection to the bill, and McLean reassured the Idahoan. The bill, as amended, passed the Senate without recorded opposition.[3]
An identical bill, H. R. 15767,[4] had been introduced in theHouse of Representatives on January 17, 1921.[2] On February 10, Indiana RepresentativeAlbert Vestal, chairman of the House Committee on Coinage, Weights and Measures (to which the bill had been referred) reported it back to the House with an amendment identical to that approved by the Senate, and with a recommendation that the bill pass.[5] S. 4983 had been referred to that committee after its receipt by the House, and on February 24 the Coinage Committee recommended the Senate bill pass the House, noting that the two bills were identical.[4]
S. 4893 was considered by the House of Representatives on March 2, 1921, with two days remaining in the congressional session. Ohio'sWarren Gard had asked questions about previous coin bills when they passed through the House.[6] Gard enquired of Vestal whether the Missouri bill was identical to the earlier bills, and whether it contained the same safeguards, and Vestal confirmed these. The bill was passed by the House without recorded objection,[7] and was enacted into law with the signature of the new president,Warren G. Harding, onhis inauguration day, March 4, 1921.[2][8]
While the legislation was still pending in Congress, on January 29, 1921, Senator Spencer wrote toCharles Moore, chairman of theCommission of Fine Arts (CFA), regarding the bill. Moore replied on February 2, advising that one of the few American sculptors capable of designing a coin be hired, and that the resulting work be subjected to the friendly criticism of other artists. Spencer put James Montgomery, chairman of the Missouri Centennial Commission, in touch with Moore, and on February 9, Moore made several proposals for the design, including a "prairie-schooner ... second, the heads of [pioneer Daniel]Boone and [early Missouri politician Thomas Hart]Benton; third, the state seal of Missouri; and fourth, the Indian pointing westward".[9] The hired sculptor could choose among these concepts, Moore suggested, and decide which could be used to best effect, with Montgomery's approval and that of the Fine Arts Commission. Montgomery replied on February 16, proposing a "standing figure of Daniel Boone, coon skin cap, deer skin clothes, with an Indian sitting at his feet, the Missouri River flowing in front, with the bluffs on opposite side, with one star with the figures '24' in center of star. This would signify first, that the white man had supplanted the Indian in Missouri Territory."[10]
Montgomery also proposed that a star with the number "24" (Missouri being the 24th state) be included in the design, but be removed from the die after 5,000 coins were struck. These would boost proceeds, helping to pay the sculptor's fee and the cost of the die, an expense estimated at $1,750.[11] Montgomery wrote again on March 22, proposing that the words "MISSOURI CENTENNIAL, SEDALIA, 1921" appear on the coins, and if possible the centennial date of August 10 as well.[11]
The Fine Arts Commission hiredRobert Ingersoll Aitken, a sculptor best known in numismatic circles for his design for the $50Panama Pacific gold pieces.[1] This was apparently not communicated to the Missouri commission as on May 17,James Earle Fraser, a member of the Fine Arts Commission, told Moore that he had heard that someone associated with the Missouri Centennial had made inquiries with theMedallic Art Company of New York, aimed at hiring a sculptor.[11] Whether Moore wrote to Montgomery is unclear, but he wrote to Spencer on May 26, advising the senator that the designs had been preliminarily approved. CFA members had suggested several changes; these were implemented and, on June 9, the CFA approved the design, a decision communicated by letter that day to theDirector of the Mint,Raymond T. Baker.[12] To speed production, the Medallic Art Company producedhubs from Aitken's plaster models, from which working dies to strike the coins could be made.[13] These hubs were sent to the Philadelphia Mint on June 29, 1921.[14]
The bust of frontiersmanDaniel Boone, who lived in Missouri for the final quarter century of his life, appears on theobverse.[15] Anthony Swiatek andWalter Breen, in their 1988 book on commemorative coins, note speculation that the obverse may have been inspired byAlbin Polasek's sculptured bust of Boone in theHall of Fame for Great Americans in New York City. Boone wears a deerskin jacket and acoonskin cap. The centennial dates, the name of the country and the coin's denomination surround the bust. The reverse depicts Boone with rifle and powder horn, and a Native American—Swiatek and Breen interpret the frontiersman as sending away the Indian, who bears a shield andpeace pipe, apparently dramatizing Montgomery's desire to show the white man supplanting the Indian in Missouri; Breen stated "as though this was something to brag about".[16] The 1921Report of the Director of the Mint describes the interaction as "Daniel Boone, with powder and rifle, directing the attention of an Indian to the westward course of the white man".[15] The Missouri Centennial half dollar, which shows Boone on either side, is one of the few coin designs in United States numismatic history to have the same individual depicted on both sides; other such depictions include Boone himself on the 1934–1938Daniel Boone Bicentennial half dollar,Lafayette on the 1900-datedLafayette dollar and the frontiersman on the 1936Elgin, Illinois, Centennial half dollar.[17]
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The 24 stars on the reverse convey the same message that the 2★4 on the obverse of some specimens does—that Missouri was the 24th state to enter the Union. The nameSEDALIA, the site of the centennial exposition, appears inexergue. Aitken's stylized monogram,RA, is near the rifle butt.[8] The Missouri piece, and theColumbian half dollar of 1892–1893, are the only US commemorative half dollars to bear none of the patriotic mottoes usually found on US coinage, that isLIBERTY,IN GOD WE TRUST andE PLURIBUS UNUM.[18] The design was liked at the time of issue; several specimens were shown and admired at the 1921 American Numismatic Association convention at Boston in August, soon after the coin's release.[19]
Art historianCornelius Vermeule, in his volume on US coins and medals, admired Aitken's Missouri piece, writing that Aitken "became the first American medalist to apply the principles of Renaissance medallic design to a coin of the United States and the first such artist to make a frontiersman look like a Medici prince".[20] He suggested that the figures on the reverse stand "like Roman soldiers in an Antonine relief on the Arch of Constantine or Renaissance condottieri in a large fresco of court ceremonials."[20] Vermeule noted that "the lettering on the obverse follows the forms and system of Pisanello" and that "the coin as a whole is a work of art rather than just another way to market a silver fifty-cent piece because all three of the mottoes that usually burden and constrict America's attempts of numismatic art are omitted."[20] The author concluded of Aitken's works, "his imagination in selecting from the past to rephrase the present worked very well in the United States commemorative coinage".[21]
A total of 50,028 Missouri Centennial half dollars was struck at the Philadelphia Mint in July 1921, 28 being reserved for inspection and testing at the 1922 meeting of the annualAssay Commission.[22] The first coins displayed the 2★4 on the obverse; afterwards, this was ground off the dies and the remainder were struck without it. The Sedalia Trust Company distributed the coins at a price of $1 on behalf of the centennial commission, selling both varieties by mail and the plain ones at the exposition in August. There had been little advance publicity, and the exposition took place during theRecession of 1921. All of the 2★4 coins sold, but when sales slowed of the plain variety, 29,600 were returned to the mint for melting.[8][14] Early advertisements for the coin contained sketches prepared by Aitken, showing the obverse as issued, but depicting a reverse bearing the stateSeal of Missouri, that Aitken had abandoned when he found it did not work well.[23] Aitken, in a letter published in part in the December 1921 issue ofThe Numismatist (the journal of theAmerican Numismatic Association) wrote that "The illustration that you published was made from one of several drawings which I submitted to the Federal Art Commission. The Missouri committee was informed that I would work along these lines, though I was given full latitude for any change I might advise. The seal of the State did not work out well, so I developed the reverse with the two standing figures, which met with the instant approval of the Commission in Washington."[23]
The number of coins bearing the 2★4 is uncertain. Swiatek and Breen wrote that 5,000 were struck and were sold, meaning that 15,400 of the plain ones were issued.[8] Swiatek, in his 2012 volume on commemoratives, adhered to these figures.[14] Coin dealer David Bullowa wrote in 1937 that 10,000 of the 2★4 were issued, with which numismatic writerQ. David Bowers concurred, noting that the two varieties are about equal in rarity.[24] The deluxe edition ofR. S. Yeoman'sA Guide Book of United States Coins, published in 2018, estimates that 9,400 of the 2★4 were issued, and 11,400 of the plain.[25] Both varieties sold at a premium above the issue price by 1925, and at the height of the first commemorative coin boom in 1936, the 2★4 sold for $25 and the plain for $28. By 1940, the 2★4 sold for more than the plain, and at the height of the second boom in 1980, the 2★4 brought $2,600 to the plain's $2,400. Yeoman's book lists the 2★4 for between $625 and $7,250, and the plain for between $400 and $6,650, each depending on condition.[26] An exceptional specimen of the plain variety sold at auction in 2015 for $70,500.[27] At least one specimen in proof condition is known, sold at auction in 1992.[28]
Media related toMissouri Centennial half dollar at Wikimedia Commons
