Have you ever wondered which state has been honored/involved with the most US classic-era commemorative coins? Or if Congress appeared to favor one or two states over others?
This post is about the first of these questions, I'll tackle the second in a subsequent post.
From an overall perspective, 25 states and two US territories (Hawaii, Philippines) are directly connected with one or more classic-era commemorative coins.
First, a few notes about how I assembled the lists I used to determine my "Top 3" states in each category:
1. Coins that presented a topic/theme that was not confined to a single state were assigned to the state where the sponsor of the coin was based. For example, the Oregon Trail Memorial half dollar involved multiple western states, but its sponsor organization - the Oregon Trail Memorial Association - was headquartered in New York City. So, the State of New York got the credit for the coin.
2. The Carver-Washington half dollar was jointly sponsored by the Booker T. Washington Birthplace Memorial (Virginia) and the George Washington Carver National Monument Foundation (Missouri), so I split all numbers associated with the coin 50/50 between the two states.
3. Individual coins within multi-year and/or multi-mint sets were counted as year/mint varieties. For example, the 1936 Rhode Island half dollar has one design type but three varieties (P/D/S). The Arkansas Statehood Centennial half dollar has two types (Standard Issue, Robinson Issue) and 16 varieties (Standard Issue (15) - 1935 P/D/S, 1936 P/D/S, 1937 P/D/S, 1938 P/D/S, 1939 P/D/S + Robinson Issue).
With that, here are a few "Top 3 State" lists:
Top 3 States By Number of Design Types1. California - 8 (1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition (4), 1923
Monroe Doctrine Centennial, 1925 California Statehood 75th Anniversary, 1925-36 California-Pacific International Exposition and 1936 San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge Opening)
2. New York - 6 (1924 Huguenot-Walloon, 1926-39 Oregon Trail Memorial, 1935 Hudson, NY Sesquicentennial, 1936 Albany, NY Charter 250th Anniversary, 1936 Long Island Tercentenary and 1936 New Rochelle, NY 250th Anniversary)
3. (tie) Illinois - 5 (1892-93 World's Columbian Exposition - Columbus Half Dollar, 1893 World's Columbian Exposition -
Isabella Quarter Dollar, 1900 Lafayette Memorial, 1918 Illinois Statehood Centennial and 1936 Elgin, IL Centennial)
3. (tie) Ohio - 5 (1916-17 William McKinley Birthplace Memorial, 1922 US Grant Birth Centenary (2), 1936 Cleveland, OH Centennial - Great Lakes Exposition and 1936 Cincinnati Music Center)
Top 3 States By Total Coin Types and Varieties1. Virginia - 26 (1936 Lynchburg, VA Sesqui-Centennial, 1936 Norfolk, VA Bicentennial/Tricentennial, 1946-51 Booker T. Washington Memorial (18), 1951-54 George Washington Carver-Booker T. Washington Memorial (6) - half of total - shared with Missouri)
2. New York - 19 (1924 Huguenot-Walloon, 1926-39 Oregon Trail Memorial (14), 1935 Hudson, NY Sesquicentennial, 1936 Albany, NY Charter 250th Anniversary, 1936 Long Island Tercentenary and 1936 New Rochelle, NY 250th Anniversary)
3. (tie) Arkansas - 16 (1935-39 Arkansas Statehood Centennial (15) and 1936 Arkansas Statehood Centennial-Joseph T, Robinson)
3. (tie) Kentucky - 16 (1934-38 Daniel Boone Birth Bicentennial (16))
Top 3 States By Total Mintage Across All Issues1. Illinois - 2.678 million (1892-93 World's Columbian Exposition - Columbus Half Dollar, 1893 World's Columbian Exposition -
Isabella Quarter Dollar, 1900 Lafayette Memorial, 1918 Illinois Statehood Centennial and 1936 Elgin, IL Centennial)
2. Virginia - 1.467 million (1936 Lynchburg, VA Sesqui-Centennial, 1936 Norfolk, VA Bicentennial/Tricentennial, 1946-Booker T. Washington Memorial (18), 1951-54 George Washington Carver-Booker T. Washington Memorial (6) - half of total - shared with Missouri)
3. Georgia - 1.315 million (1925 Stone Mountain Memorial)
Posted 09/17/2021 10:57 am
