The question:
Quote:
How many mult-year or multi-mint coins were avoided due to legislative decisions to deny requests for additional years and/or branch mint issues.
There are certainly a number of classic-era US commemorative coin bills that, in their language at introduction, left open the possibility of a multi-year program that was squashed before the bill became law. A few that come immediately to mind are (with links to my posts about their multi-year/multi-mint potential):
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1936 Albany, NY Charter 250th Anniversary-
1936 Bridgeport, CT Centennial-
1936 (1938) Delaware Tercentenary-
1936 Elgin, IL Centennial-
1936 Battle of Gettysburg 75th Anniversary-
1936 Long Island Tercentenary-
1936 Wisconsin Territorial Centennial-
1938 New Rochelle, NY 250th AnniversaryThere are also cases such as the Providence, RI Tercentenary half dollar and the Hudson, NY Sesquicentennial half dollar in which the coin's final legislative language, as passed into Law, did not include a date/year requirement for the coin or specifically include an expiration date for striking, such a combination opened the door to a potential multi-year program (unfulfilled).
Such date-related "omissions" were essentially standard in the early Acts that authorized the coins. For example, the Acts authorizing the 1918 Illinois Statehood Centennial, the 1920 Maine Statehood Centennial, the 1921 Alabama Statehood Centennial, 1921 Missouri Statehood Centennial half dollars and 1922 Grant Memorial gold and silver coins all lack specific date specifications/restrictions. Restrictive language was also lacking from later bills such as the 1936 Cincinnati Music Center and the 1936 Columbia, SC Sesquicentennial half dollars. (The Providence, RI, Cincinnati and Columbia, SC half dollars allowed for multiple mints to strike the coins, however.)
An attempt was made by the Pennsylvania State Commission to get its bill for the Battle of Gettysburg Half Dollar amended to remove the one-mint restriction that was added to it before passage - the amendment failed.
On a related topic:
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Quick Bits #38 - Multi-Year Programs
Posted 06/29/2023 8:30 pm
