Hudson Sesquicentennial half dollar
The Hudson, New York, Sesquicentennial half dollar is a commemorative fifty-cent piece struck by the United States Bureau of the Mint in 1935. Its obverse depicts the Half Moon, flagship of Henry Hudson, after whom the city of Hudson is named. In addition to showing the ship, the coin displays a version of the Hudson city seal, with Neptune riding a whale, a design that has drawn commentary over the years.
About Hudson Sesquicentennial half dollar in brief
The Hudson, New York, Sesquicentennial half dollar is a commemorative fifty-cent piece struck by the United States Bureau of the Mint in 1935. Its obverse depicts the Half Moon, flagship of Henry Hudson, after whom the city of Hudson is named. In addition to showing the ship, the coin displays a version of the Hudson city seal, with Neptune riding a whale, a design that has drawn commentary over the years. Legislation to issue a coin in honor of its 150th anniversary went through Congress without opposition and was signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, becoming the Act of May 2, 1935. In June 1935, 10,000 Hudson half dollars were distributed to civic authorities for sale to the public. Most of the coins were likely bought by coin dealers, leaving few for collectors, with the result that prices spiked from the USD 1 cost at the time of issue. This caused anger among coin collectors, but the coin’s value has increased steadily since then. In 1935, 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 premium.
The responsible official or group was to be designated by the Mayor of Hudson. The coin was charged by a 1921 executive order by President Warren G. Harding with rendering advisory opinions regarding public artworks, including coins by Chester Beach, Francis H. Packer, Paul Manship, Laura Fraser, and Chester Beach. The city’s Mayor Frank Wise asked for the coin to be designed by the sculptor John Flanagan, who had recently designed the Washington, D.C., quarter, and also agreed to the guide process. However, the commission went to Beach, who went to Washington to design the $1,000 USD 1,000 coin for the city’s 50th anniversary. The Hudson half dollar was the first coin struck in the U.S. Mint’s history to feature an image of a whale on the obverse, and the first of its kind in the world. It is the only half dollar to have been struck to commemorate the 150th year of Hudson’s incorporation. It was struck on the same day as the Rhode Island Tercentenary half dollar.
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This page is based on the article Hudson Sesquicentennial half dollar published in Wikipedia (as of Oct. 31, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
