Commems Collection Classic: What If? 1960 Statehood Centennials

I've previously discussed proposed commemorative coin programs to recognize each State in the Union:

- What If? 1957 State Commemorative Coins
- What If? 1960's Statehood Half Dollar Series

Each of these proposals far pre-dated the Statehood Quarter Series that was issued from 1999 through 2008 (plus the coins of the Territories Series addendum issued in 2009).

There was one other related coin program proposal at the time, one that would have been tied to each State's 100 years of Statehood milestone. It was introduced via a pair of identical bills in the House of Representatives in April 1960 by James Floyd Breeding (D-KS) and Newell Adolphus George (D-KS).

The proposal would have defined "ever-lasting coin series" as the bill provided for the Secretary of the Treasury to strike half dollars of standard specifications "in commemoration of one hundredth, two hundredth, and each succeeding centennial anniversary of the admission of each of the several States into the Union." As there will be 100-year Statehood milestones to mark as long as there is a United States, the series proposed by the bills would definitely have been #1 on the commemorative coin program duration chart!

Presumably, the issued half dollars would have been circulating supplements to whatever 50-cent coin was in circulation at the time - the bill did not address this topic. The design and mintage of each half dollar was left to the Secretary of the Treasury to decide.

If either of the bills had passed as written in 1960, the first states to be commemorated would have been Kansas (1861-1961) - the bills' catalyst considering Representatives Breeding and George represented Kansas?, West Virginia (1863-1963), Nevada (1964-1964) and Nebraska (1867-1967) - each issued a commemorative medal in observance. We recently would have had half dollars marking the 200th anniversaries of Statehood for Mississippi (1817-2017), Illinois (1818-2018), Alabama (1819-2019), Maine (1820-2020) and Missouri (1821-2021).

Upon their introduction, the bills were referred to the House Committee on Banking and Currency. Neither was ever reported out and both died for lack of action when the 86th Congress adjourned in September 1960. I believe the bills' long-term open-endedness was a big reason the Committee decided not to act on them.


For more of my topics on commemorative coins and medals, including more What If? stories, see: Commems Collection.