Commems Collection Classic: Statehood Centennial Exclusivity

In its June 1947 Report, issued in support of the 1948 Wisconsin Statehood Centennial Half Dollar bill, the House Committee on Banking and Currency went beyond recommending the Wisconsin coin for approval, it offered an opinion of US commemorative coins that, if had it been adopted via legislation, would have reshaped the potential US commemorative coin landscape.

In its report, the Committee stated:

"The committee is of the opinion that such commemorative issues should in the future be limited to centennial statehood celebrations, or full muliples thereof. It is felt that the recognition of centennials of statehood by authorizing commemorative coins for such purposes is appropriate, especially when the legislatures of such sovereign States memorialize the Congress for such purposes."

I've previously posted about such memorials:

- 1946 Iowa Statehood Centennial - General Assembly Resolution

- What If? 1948 Wisconsin Statehood Centennial - Legislature Resolution

- What If? 1947 Utah Pioneers - Utah Legislature Resolution

The Report continued:

"The committee recommends the adoption of a policy of limiting the issuance of commemorative coins to statehood centennial issues, and looks with disfavor upon commemorative coin requests for any other purposes. It feels that the coinage system of the Nation should not be subjected to the confusion of special issues which are not of paramount national interest. The committee recommends this policy because too frequently in the past the issuance of commemorative coins have been for purposes which were not of paramount national interest and have consequently resulted in confusion and tended to demoralize the integrity of the coinage system."

After presenting a table of past US commemorative coin issues that illustrated authorized mintage figures, struck figures and melted figures for each, and reviewing some of the problems encountered with some of them, the Committee followed with:

"The committee feel that by limiting issues to the statehood centennials, or full multiples thereof, that many of the abuses which had compelled the Presidents in the past to veto commemorative coin issues will be eliminated."

The Report concluded with a summary statement:

"The committee will consider requests for the issuance of commemorative coins for statehood centennials when Congress is memorialized by the respective legislatures to so act. Upon the occasion of such request, the committee intends to review each request to be assured that the number of coins authorized is reasonable, that a commission administering the disposal of the coins is duly appointed by the Governor of the State for that purpose, and that the committee be fully assured in all respects that the disposal of such coins will be handled in such manner as not to reflect upon the integrity of our coinage system."

In the years that followed, the "Statehood Centennial Only" policy may or may not have been implemented consistently. As was the case prior to the policy announcement, most proposed commemorative coins were not reported out of Committee. So, "Yes" to policy implementation? It's difficult to say. Such action (lack of action?) may have been the result of the Committee's policy shift or it may just have been a continuation of Congress' pre-1947 mindset regarding commemorative coins (Generally, ).

A somewhat related coin bill was proposed about a decade later:

- What If? 1957 State Commemorative Coins

More than 10 years ago, I posted a quick introduction to this 1947 Report here:

"Did You Know?" #10 Statehood Centennials

(It includes some details on the previous commemorative coins referenced in the Report.)


For more of my posts about commemorative coins and medals, including others about the proposed 1948 Wisconsin coin, see: Commems Collection - What If?.