Hawaii Sesquicentennial half dollar
The Hawaii Sesquicentennial half dollar was struck in 1928 in honor of the 150th anniversary of Captain James Cook’s landing in Hawaii. The coin depicts Captain Cook on the obverse and a Hawaiian chieftain on the reverse. Only 10,000 were struck for the public, making the coin rare and valuable. Sculptor Chester Beach made the plaster models for the coins from sketches by Juliette May Fraser.
About Hawaii Sesquicentennial half dollar in brief
The Hawaii Sesquicentennial half dollar was struck in 1928 in honor of the 150th anniversary of Captain James Cook’s landing in Hawaii. The coin depicts Captain Cook on the obverse and a Hawaiian chieftain on the reverse. Only 10,000 were struck for the public, making the coin rare and valuable. Sculptor Chester Beach made the plaster models for the coins from sketches by Juliette May Fraser. The issue price, at USD 2, was the highest for a commemorative half dollar to that point, but the coins sold out quickly and have risen in value to over a thousand dollars. The bill for the Hawaii half dollar passed through Congress without opposition or amendment, and became the Act of March 7, 1928 with the signature of President Calvin Coolidge. Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon thought the occasion important enough that, unusually for him, he did not oppose such an issue. In 1927, the legislature of the Territory of Hawaii passed a resolution calling on the U.S. government to produce a commemoratives coin for the 150-year anniversary of Cook’s arrival in the islands. The resolution requested that Washington invite the United Kingdom and other nations. It also asked the federal government to issue a half dollar and postage stamps in favor of the anniversary. At the time, commemoratives were not sold by the government—Congress, in authorizing legislation, designated an organization which had the exclusive right to purchase the coins at face value and vend them to the public at a premium.
In the case of the HawaiiHalfDollar, the Cook SesQuicentennial Commission of Hawaii was the designated group. The committee chose a design based on cartoon-style drawings, with the portrait of Cook based on a Wedgwood plaque that had been owned by Queen Emma, showing the explorer facing right. Within two days, Fraser had produced sketches for the coin, which were turned into plaster models by Chester Beach, a sculptor. The design was approved by the Mint and the coin went into production in August 1928. It was the first commemorative coin to be struck by the Bureau of the Mint, which is still in operation today. It is the only one of its kind to have been struck in the United States, and the first of only a handful of commemorative coins to be made in the world. It has been described as one of the most valuable coins in the history of the world, with a value of more than $1,000,000 (US$1,500,000) and a scarcity of only 10,00,000. The half dollar is one of only two commemoratives that have been issued in the last 100 years.
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This page is based on the article Hawaii Sesquicentennial half dollar published in Wikipedia (as of Oct. 31, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
