Another story of a US commemorative coin that almost was...The Aroostook War was a conflict between the United States and British North America (the future Canada) that took place in 1838-39 in what is now Maine (US) and New Brunswick (Canada). It should be noted, however, that calling it a "war" was/is surely a misnomer.
It was a border dispute that came about because the 1783 Treaty of Paris that formally ended the war between the US and Great Britain (i.e., the American Revolution) did not fully define the exact border between the state and province. As a result, settlers from both sides moved into the disputed area and began to do what settlers do - build homes, use the land's resources, etc.
As local tensions rose, both sides sent troops into the area and appropriated funds to defend their territory. Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed and a diplomatic solution/compromise was negotiated without actual armed conflict or bloodshed occurring. In 1842, Great Britain and the US signed the Webster-Ashburton Treaty which established a formal border.
Fast forward to April 1937...Representative Ralph Owen Brewster (R-ME) introduced a bill in the House that called for up to 50,000 half dollars to commemorate "the one-hundredth anniversary of the Aroostook War, which led to the settlement of the international boundary line between the United States and Canada." A companion bill was introduced in the Senate by Wallace Humphrey White, Jr. (R-ME).
The bills were introduced on behalf of the Aroostook Development Association which was authorized to dispose of the coins "at par or at a premium" to help cover the costs of the commemorative events it planned for the anniversary.
All coins were to feature a "1938" centennial date regardless of when they were struck, and the Association was limited to placing pre-paid orders for the coin in batches of 25,000. These provisions served to prevent the sponsor from abusing collectors by creating a multi-year program consisting of low-mintage issues.
Unfortunately for their sponsor, the bills came at a time when commemorative coinage legislation no longer had widespread support in Congress and was also being aggressively opposed by the Treasury Department. It wasn't a surprise then that neither the House nor Senate bill moved forward beyond its referral to its respective committee in charge of coinage matters; the Committee on Coinage, Weights and Measures (House) and Committee on Banking and Currency (Senate).
For me, the proposed Aroostook coin is reminiscent of the unsuccessful Gadsden Purchase coin bill of 1930 which also looked to commemorate an event that helped form the borders of the US. While defining US borders is undoubtedly an important issue, I'm not sure such a relatively minor border event rises to a level that is worthy of an official US coin.
I do believe it is a subject worthy of a national commemorative medal, however. Had such a medal been proposed rather than a half dollar, it would have had a much better chance of moving through Congress and gaining the President's approval. But as with other coin-sponsoring groups of the time, it was "coin or nothing" - they wound up with nothing!
While it seems likely that some sort of local commemoration took place in 1938, I haven't yet found anything of notable scope or any mention of the "Aroostook Development Association" being involved in any centennial celebrations. The Association may have been one of the many coin bill sponsors that was, at best, a pseudo organization that was created in an attempt to make "quick money" via coin sales vs. to truly celebrate the event they were ostensibly promoting!
Read More: Commems Collection 
Posted 11/23/2014 3:27 pm
