Fort Vancouver Centennial half dollar
Fort Vancouver was founded in 1825 by the Hudson’s Bay Company chief factor for the area, Dr. John McLoughlin. The coins were flown from the San Francisco Mint, where they were struck, to Washington state by airplane as a publicity stunt. They sold badly; much of the issue was returned for redemption and melting. Due to the low number of surviving pieces, the coins are valuable today.
About Fort Vancouver Centennial half dollar in brief
Fort Vancouver was founded in 1825 by the Hudson’s Bay Company chief factor for the area, Dr. John McLoughlin. Fort Vancouver became the trading center for a large area, and the largest settlement west of the Great Plains. The coins were flown from the San Francisco Mint, where they were struck, to Washington state by airplane as a publicity stunt. They sold badly; much of the issue was returned for redemption and melting. The failure may have been a factor in one official’s suicide. Due to the low number of surviving pieces, the coins are valuable today. The Fort Vancouver Centennial half dollar is a commemorative fifty-cent piece struck by the United States Bureau of the Mint in 1925. The coin was designed by Laura Gardin Fraser. Its obverse depicts John McLouglin, who was in charge of Fort Vancouver from its construction in 18 25 until 1846. From there, he effectively ruled the Oregon Country on behalf of the Hudson’s Bay Company. He died in 1857; a century later, the Oregon Legislature named him the “Founder of Oregon”, and Fort Vancouver is now a national historic site. It was named for the British sea captain George Vancouver, who also gave his name to Vancouver in Canada. It is located on the north bank of the Columbia River in what is today Vancouver, Washington, and lay across the river from what would become Portland, Oregon.
In May 1924, Representative Albert Johnson of Washington state introduced legislation in their houses of Congress for a half dollar commemorating the centennial of Fortancouver. Representative Albert Vestal, the chairman of the House Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures, met with Johnson and persuaded him to introduce a bill for a medal instead. Johnson tacked on language authorizing a coin for Fort Vancouver. The Senate agreed to the changes, and President Calvin Coolidge signed the authorizing act on February 24, 1925, and Fraser was engaged to design the coin on the recommendation of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts. The bills were not given any hearings; the Treasury Department was opposing more commemorative coin issues, as these were finding their way into circulation and confusing the public. The bill was returned to the House soon thereafter, asking that Johnson reconsidered his amendment in the same phrasing as he could be reconsidered in the bill. Johnson realized that such a simple amendment might not result in a coin being issued, and therefore returned the bill to the floor soon thereafter. The House voted to add a further amendment to the bill, and it was passed.
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This page is based on the article Fort Vancouver Centennial half dollar published in Wikipedia (as of Oct. 31, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
