Alabama Centennial half dollar
The Alabama Centennial half dollar was a commemorative 50-cent coin struck in 1921. It was a belated acknowledgement of the 100th anniversary of Alabama’s admission to the Union in 1819. The coin was created by Laura Gardin Fraser, the first woman credited with designing a coin.
About Alabama Centennial half dollar in brief
The Alabama Centennial half dollar was a commemorative 50-cent coin struck in 1921. It was a belated acknowledgement of the 100th anniversary of Alabama’s admission to the Union in 1819. The coin was created by Laura Gardin Fraser, the first woman credited with designing a coin. The half dollars were not issued until October 1921, apparently because the initial decision to depict President Wilson, a Democrat, on the coin might be reversed depending on the results of the 1920 presidential election. After Republican Warren G. Harding won the presidency, the sponsors of the issue chose to depict William Bibb, the state’s first governor, and Thomas Kilby, its governor at the time of the centennial. To boost sales, a symbol, 2X2, was included in the design for a minority of the coins; these are generally more expensive today. The three coin amended on committee on March 27, 1920, were considered in order by the House of Representatives on April 21, 1920. As the Maine piece was considered, Ohio’s Warren Gardan asked questions about the Alabama coin and learned that the Pilgrim coin was the next to be considered. The committee voted to recommend Rainey’s bill, with an amendment to provide for half dollars instead of quarters, and then proceeded to consider the Pilgrim proposal. When the bill came to the floor, Vestal yielded time for a statement in favor of Rainey, which began with a brief explanation of the bill’s provisions, followed by a much longer paean to the glorious history of his home state.
The bill moved quickly through the legislative process and became the Act of May 10,1920, with the signature of President Woodrow Wilson. The proceeds of the coin were to be used for “historical and monumental” purposes, and were not to be sold to the public at a premium. In 1920, commemorative coins were not sold by the government—Congress, in authorizing legislation, usually designated an organization which had the exclusive right to purchase them at face value and vend them to thepublic at a premiums. Although not mentioned in the legislation, in the case of the Alabama Centennial half-dollar, the Alabama centennial commission was the authorized group. The choice of denomination came as a surprise to committee member William A. Ashbrook of Ohio, a coin collector, who asked why Rainey was not asking for 50,000 half dollars, as other states had. Rainey had asked for 100,000 quarter dollars, and while addressing the committee stated that the sole criticism of his coinage proposal in the Alabama press was one article suggesting he should have asked for double the amount. He also accepted Ashbrook’s discouragement when the Alabamian wanted to double the authorized number of coins. The Committee voted to vote to recommend the bill on March 26, 1920; it was passed the next day by a vote of 2-1. The commission sponsored local celebrations in the state in 1919 and 1920, but was beginning to wind down its operations before it began the push for a centennial coin.
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This page is based on the article Alabama Centennial half dollar published in Wikipedia (as of Oct. 31, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
