Wayte Raymond offered a full line of coin board products for the US classic-era commemorative coin series. As the series evolved, so did Raymond's coin boards - either via updates to the printed coin captions or the addition of boards to house newly released coins. This "evolution" was readily apparent within the boards designed to house a US commemorative half dollar Type Set
This entry concerns the set of boards produced to house a Type Set of US commemorative half dollars - a single example of each of the series' 48 half dollar designs.
The Wayte Raymond US Commemorative Half Dollars Type Set consists of five coin boards. The Stock Numbers for the boards in the Set are: 375-A, 375-B, 375-C, 375-D and 375-E.
US Commemorative Half Dollars: Type Set, Board 1 / 375-A
The first page of the Set begins with a space for the World's Columbian Exposition half dollar (either the 1892 or 1893) and runs through the 1924 Huguenot-Walloon Tercentenary coin; collectors were given the choice of filling the Pilgrim Tercentenary opening with a coin from either 1920 or 1921.
US Commemorative Half Dollars: Type Set, Board 2 / 375-B
The second page of the Set covers the 1925 Lexington-Concord Sesquicentennial half dollar through a type piece for the multi-year Texas Independence Centennial half dollar set.
Presented above is an "early" printing of the board from circa 1938. Note that the dates assigned to the Oregon Trail Memorial and Texas Centennial coins do not reflect the entire run of the multi-year issues.
US Commemorative Half Dollars: Type Set, Board 2 / 375-B - Circa 1940 Edition
Based on the complete date runs for the Oregon Trail and Texas Centennial coins, this board appears to have likely been printed circa 1940 (or later).
US Commemorative Half Dollars: Type Set, Board 3 / 375-C
The third page of the Set accommodates the Daniel Boone Bicentennial half dollar through the Cincinnati Musical Center issue.
Things to notice: a) the openings for the Daniel Boone Bicentennial and Arkansas Centennial coins extend only to 1937 - the Boone program included 1938 issues, the Arkansas series included 1938 and 1939 releases; b) the P-D-S sets for the Rhode Island Tercentenary, Great Lake Exposition (no mention of Cleveland Centennial) and Cincinnati Musical Center, as expected, are represented by a single "type" opening; and c) the coin today referred to simply as "Spanish Trail" had a much longer name back in 1937 - "Old Spanish Trail Fourth Centennial."
US Commemorative Half Dollars: Type Set, Board 4 / 375-D
The fourth page of the Set covers the 1936 Long Island Tercentenary coin through the 1936 Delaware Tercentenary half dollar. Again, as expected, a three-coin P-D-S set issue - the 1936 Columbia, SC Sesquicentennial - is represented by a single opening.
US Commemorative Half Dollars: Type Set, Board 5 / 375-E - 1950s Edition
The fifth page of the Type Set boards begins with the 1936 Norfolk, VA Bicentennial half dollar and ends with the 1951 G. W. Carver / B. T. Washington coin. Things to notice: a) the caption for the Booker T. Washington Birthplace Memorial issue does not reflect its full run of 1946 to 1951, it just states "1946"; b) the caption for the G W Carver - B T Washington program lists only "1951" vs. its full run of 1951 to 1954; and c) the two Civil War Battle 75th Anniversary coins are captioned differently - Gettysburg lists "75th Anniversary" while Antietam includes the dual dates of "1862-1937".
The board make use of 8 of its 10 openings, with the last two unlabeled.
It appears the 375-E board shown above was printed no earlier than 1951. As the board lists only the first year of issue for the GWC-BTW half dollar, a print date of 1951 or early 1952, before the remaining years of the program were issued, is plausible. Alternatively, a decision to caption the board's opening with just the first year of issue even when printed after the other program years were known is also possible.
When the fact that the Complete Set of boards (presented above) includes the entire date runs for the BTW and GWC-BTW half dollar sets is considered, it appears the Type Set boards presented here were printed at a time before the full range of each BTW series was known with certainty.
US Commemorative Half Dollars: Type Set, Board 5 / 375-E - Early Edition
As noted above, the Type Set boards were updated during the course of the coin series as new coins were released. Here's a second example of the 375-E board that ends with the 1938 New Rochelle half dollar, suggesting a print date between 1938 and 1945 (pre-Iowa).
US Commemorative Half Dollars: Type Set, Back of Board
On the back of each board, at its top, is printed "No. 375-A Wayte Raymond Inc.---NY Made in U. S. A. Pat. No. 1,719,962."
(Note: The stock number listed here is used as an example - the number was unique to each board type.)For more on the coins includes on this these boards, along with other of my posts on commemorative coins and medals, have a look at:
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Posted 03/20/2022 1:57 pm
