Commems Collection Classic: "Did You Know?" Classic Era Issue Prices #08

Unlike today's commemorative coins, the coins of the classic era were not sold and distributed directly by the US Mint. The Mint struck the coins and then delivered them to the organization that sponsored the commemorative issue. The sponsor set the price for each coin and was responsible for selling them to collectors.

The first US commemorative, the 1892 Columbian Exposition half-dollar, initially had a selling price of $1.00 though unsold examples were later dumped into circulation at face value. The Isabella quarter-dollar followed in 1893, also with a $1.00 price. Next up was the Lafayette Dollar in 1900 with an original selling price of $2.00 per coin.

Every half-dollar released through 1927 carried a price of $1.00. In 1928, the Hawaiian doubled the previous standard and set its selling price at $2.00 per coin. The new price point was not copied by most single coins that followed; prices were typically either $1.00, $1.50 or $1.65, However, several did match the Hawaiian's $2.00 price tag, they are: 1928/33/34 Oregon Trail, 1938 Texas, 1935 Spanish Trail, 1936 Albany, 1936 Bridgeport and 1938 New Rochelle.

"Set" prices were the norm for most of the 1930s coins that were struck at all three mints; single coins were often not available. Three-coin sets were sold for as low as $4.50 (1935-37 Texas) and for as high as $12.40 (1937 Boone). Arkansas PDS sets in 1937 and 1938 sold for $8.75, 1939 sets were priced at $10.00. The 1936 Columbia, SC PDS set sold for $6.45, the 1936 Cincinnati set was $7.50. Later year BTW sets sold for 8.50, while the Carver-Washington PDS sets of 1951-1954 had original selling prices of $10.00 each.

The highest original selling price for a single coin was $5.15 -- it was the price asked for 1937 Boones struck at the San Francisco Mint. Collectors reacted poorly to the high price and sales at this level were low, the coin's sales model soon switched to three-piece sets pegged at $12.40 each (as noted above) -- an average of $4.13 per coin, the highest of all issues.

Today's silver dollars routinely cost more than 50x their face value of $1.00 -- in hindsight, maybe the roughly 10x charged for the 1937-S Boone wasn't so bad!