The mintage figures for the two varieties of Missouri Statehood half dollar - Plain and 2*4 - have been a topic of minor debate over the years. As only combined mintage figures are available via US Mint records, there isn't necessarily a definitive source to which to refer to decide the issue.
At the time of its release, the Missouri Centennial Commission's committee in charge of the commemorative coin stated that 5,000 of the 2*4 coin had been struck. Mint records list 50,028 Missouri coins as being struck in July 1921 (including 28 coins reserved for assay purposes) and also that 29,600 of the coins were later returned for melting; it is generally believed that all returned coins were of the Plain variety. These data led to the originally published mintage figures of 15,400 for the Plain variety and 5,000 for the 2*4 variety; a net total of 20,400.
The 15,400 / 5,000 split was listed in Howland Wood's pioneering 1922
American Numismatic Society (ANS) monograph (No. 16)
The Commemorative Coinage of the United States. In 1938, David Bullowa updated Howland Wood's work in an ANS monograph of his own (No. 83). It maintained Wood's original title and text, for the most part, for the coins discussed by Wood, but added discussions of the coins for the intervening years it covered. The volume is titled -
The Commemorative Coinage of the United States 1892-1938.
In his update, Bullowa stated the mintage of the 2*4 variety as being 10,000 rather than the 5,000 specified by the Missouri Committee at the time of the coin's release. Bullowa did not list a source to support his revision, however, so it is believed he based his mintage revision on the relative availability of the two Missouri varieties in the marketplace (he worked as a coin dealer at the time, being employed by the New Netherlands Coin Company).
US commemorative coin reference books published after Bullowa's volume, including Arlie Slabaugh's
United States Commemorative Coinage that was first published in 1963 (then updated in 1975) and the Anthony Swiatek - Walter Breen classic
The Encyclopedia of United States Silver & Gold Commemorative Coins 1892 to 1954 that was published in 1981 (then updated in 1989) have maintained the 15,000 Plain / 5,000 2*4 mintage figures published in Wood's early volume.
Other dealers, then and now, Q. David Bowers and David Hall among them, have noted the relative sameness of the market availability of the two varieties and have suggested that the 3:1 ratio of examples that has long been accepted by the hobby is likely inaccurate.
In his seminal work,
Commemorative Coins of the United States: A Complete Encyclopedia, published in 1991, Q. David Bowers commented that to believe only 5,000 of the 2*4 variety were minted "strains credulity, for in practice both varieties are approximately equal in rarity today, a situation borne out by catalogue values and also by statistics kept by commercial grading services."
For decades, the
A Guide Book of United States Coins (aka the "
Red Book") reported the 5,000 figure for the 2*4 variety. This was changed, however, in the "2008 Edition" when it listed mintage figures of 10,000 for the 2*4 and 10,428 for the Plain variety. These figures continued until the "2011 Edition" when they were changed to 9,400 for the 2*4 and 11,400 for the Plain - these figures continue to the present (2024) edition. These two figures total 20,800 which is a figure that
is not supported by available US Mint records, so it does raise some questions. The "
Red Book" does not always list specific references for its data, and the Missouri half dollar is one such case. For this coin, it appears it is relying on its panel of knowledgeable contributors, many of whom are full-time coin dealers, to arrive at its listed mintage figures. So, absent of verifiable data, its listings are a "best guess."
So, those adhering to US Mint Records and contemporary sponsor reports stand behind mintage figures of 5,000 for the Missouri 2*4 variety and 15,400 for the Missouri Plain variety. Those who favor a perspective driven by modern data tend to believe mintage figures more in line with 9,000 to 10,000 for the Missouri 2*4 variety and 10,000 to 11,000 for the Missouri Plain variety.
Do grading service population reports help determine the truth? I'll dive into grading service numbers in Part II
To check out Part II of this discussion:
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1921 Missouri Statehood Centennial - Mintage Figures? - Part II(Thanks to scopru, jbuck and mikey50 for their assistance in tracking down some of the Missouri mintage details in editions of the " Red Book" that I do not have on my bookshelf.) 
Posted 12/12/2023 2:39 pm
