PCGS 9330 - 1921 50C Missouri
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Authorization
The Act of Congress of March 4, 1921 Warren G. Harding's inauguration day, a singular choice. Harding may have signed it as a lame-duck item left over from the previous Congress.
Obverse
The dates 1821-1921 refer to the centennial of Missouri's admission into the Union as the 24th State, August 10, 1821, following Maine as 23rd, as part of the Missouri Compromise Act of 1820. Though usually identified merely as "a frontiersman," the bust of a young man in deerskin jacket and coonskin cap was originally intended to represent Daniel Boone, who had died in 1820 at the age of 86.
On the first variety, the 2*4 in left field again alludes to Missouri's rank as 24th State and 24th star on the flag.
Reverse
On reverse, the 24 stars have the identical meaning as the obverse, apparently on the principle that some ideas need to be repeated to get into others' heads; the remainder are more obscure. A white frontiersman with rifle and powderhorn (apparently on the old theory that "the only good Injun is a dead Injun") appears to be sending away the Indian, whose shield and peace pipe are mere impedimenta. Taxay quotes James Montgomery (chairman of the Missouri Centennial Exposition) as having suggested both Boone's portrait and the Indian (originally to be sitting at Boone's feet facing the river), to signify that "the white man had supplanted the Indian in Missouri Territory," as though this was something to brag about. In exergue, the name SEDALLA designates the site of the Exposition and State Fair for which these coins were made. Near the rifle butt, the peculiar monogram (like a stylized movie camera on a tripod) is meant to be RA, the initials of Robert Aitken, the sculptor.
Source: U.S. Rare Coin Investments
Mintage
The Philadelphia Mint struck a total of 50,028 Missouri half dollars in July, 1921: 5,000 pieces with the 2H4 designation and 45,028 more of the "plain" variety (the additional 28 pieces were for assay). All of the 5,000 coins with the special 2H4 designation were sold, but the plain variety didn't fare as well; 29,600 pieces were later melted, leaving a net mintage of 15,428 "plain" .
One matte proof 2H4 has been reported, allegedly struck for Chief Mint Engraver John Sinnock, a coin collector whose estate contained numerous special strikings of coins from the 1920s, '30s, and '40s, it remains unavailable for examination.
Though the coins were well liked, national distribution through numismatic channels appears to have been very limited, and not many were sold at the brief Exposition possibly because of little advance publicity, possibly because then and later relatively few people in that Depression year felt they could afford the pieces, even at $1 apiece for either variety. Possibly because of the financial pinch during the 1921 crisis, possibly also during the 1929-1936 Depression years, many of the Missouris were spent; others were kept as good luck pocket pieces. As a result, few pristine gems remain.
Specification
Weight: 192.9 grains = 12.50 grams
Net Weight: .36169 ounce pure silver
Diameter: 30.61 mm (1.205 in)
Composition: 90% Ag 10% Cu
Thickness: 2.15 mm (0.085 in)
Edge: 150 reeds
Catalog reference
Prices realized from past auction lots. (PCGS Holder)
PCGS Price Guide [1]
Link to
Source
- Breen, Walter H., Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U. S. and Colonial Coins, New York: Doubleday, 1987.
- Slabaugh, Arlie R., United States Commemorative Coinage, 2nd Ed.," Racine, WI: Whitman Publishing, 1975.
- U.S. Rare Coin Investments
