Back in April 1936, the American Numismatic Association published in its magazine -
The Numismatist, - a proposal for a bill to be introduced in Congress that would have brought ongoing, multi-year commemorative coin programs to an end and limited new coins to being struck in the year in which they were authorized.
It was prepared by LW Hoffecker, the Texas coin dealer behind the 1935 Old Spanish Trail Half Dollar and the failed 1930 Gadsden Purchase Half Dollar proposal. At the time, Hoffecker was Chairman of the Legislative Committee of the Association. Hoffecker had sent the proposal to Andrew Lawrence Somers (D-NY), the Chairman of the House Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures.
The proposed bill read:
A BILL
To limit the time during which Commemorative Coins authorized by Acts of Congress may be struck by the Mints. Be it resolved that on and after December 31, 1936, all authorizations heretofore made by Acts of Congress for minting of Commemorative Coins shall terminate, and that thereafter all future authorizations for the minting of Commemorative Coins shall terminate on December 31 of the year in which said authorizations are made.Representative Somers reportedly "promised" to get the bill introduced in the House, but it didn't happen. Instead, dozens of bills were introduced for new commemorative coins.
In 1939, however, Congress had finally reached the point where it understood the exploitative potential of certain commemorative coin programs and moved to put an end to them - it passed a bill (and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed it into law) that brought programs such as the Oregon Trail Memorial, Arkansas Statehood Centennial, Daniel Boone Birth Bicentennial and Texas Independence Centennial to an official end. (You can read about it here:
Regulating US Commemorative Coins and here:
Regulating US Commemorative Coins - Redux / Part I.)
I think it was a good thing that the A N A tried to bring some order to the US commemorative coin series - its magazine at the time often included letters from collectors who were disgruntled over how various commemorative coins were being handled. The Association did not want to bring about the end of the US commemorative coin series, just put some boundaries on it so that it was less abusive to collectors. It would have been good if Congress had moved forward with the Association's proposal in 1936, but at least it addressed the issues (partly) in 1939.
For other of my posts about commemorative coins and medals, and other currency stories, see:
Commems Collection.
Posted 10/23/2023 11:15 am
