Commems Collection Classic: To The Melting Pot #03 - 1946-51 Booker T Washington Birthplace Memorial

Note: I've written multiple times about the Booker T. Washington Birthplace Memorial Half Dollar and prefer not to repeat too much of those posts here, so check out the links below for my previous posts on the topic which provide more details about the man, the coin and the involvement of the US Congress in its creation.

The Booker T. Washington Birthplace Memorial Half Dollar is a prime example of the captivating power of an excellent salesman/promoter who exudes passion for and confidence in what he is selling! The promoter in question? Sidney J. Phillips.

Mr. Phillips' admiration for Booker T. Washington and his many accomplishments helped create one of the most ambitious US commemorative coin programs in the history of the classic era. Phillips' enthusiasm for his proposed coin program was infectious and led to Congress passing a coin bill that authorized up to 5 million BTW half dollars for the Booker T. Washington Birthplace Memorial of Rocky Mount, Virginia - an organization established by Phillips and one for which Phillips served as president.

Booker T. Washington

(Image Credit: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division. Public Domain.)

The following from Phillips' opening statement during the House Committee Hearing on the BTW coin bill provides a sense of how deeply Phillips admired BTW:

"I know of no event or person in my entire life that has given me more actual help in my daily tasks than the teachings of Booker T. Washington. Even in my early boyhood, these teachings made themselves felt in my life. So inspired was he by the teachings and abiding faith that Booker T. Washington had in the ownership of land and in work well done, that my father went home from his first visit to Tuskegee Institute and purchased 20 acres of land and later purchased 300 more acres in the black belt of Alabama."

(Note: The term "black belt" originally referred to the dark, rich soil of the statewide region in the southern portion of the State, but, in the 1800s, the significant use of enslaved African-Americans to perform manual labor on the area's cotton plantations gave the phrase an additional meaning.)

Phillips did his best to promote and sell the BTW half dollars using a creative mix of marketing initiatives (review my previous posts on the coin). Whether such efforts should be considered a success or failure is a matter of perspective. On the "negative" hand, less than 3.2 million of the 5 million coins authorized were struck, financial pressures resulted in ~1.58 million of the 3,166 million coins being returned to the Mint to be melted - essentially 50% - and hundreds of thousands of the coins were placed into circulation at face value vs. being sold at a premium. But, a more positive spin would suggest, that through Phillips' tireless efforts, more than 1.5 million BTW coins were distributed to collectors, admirers, souvenir seekers, etc. and BTW's legacy was honored and remembered in a tangible manner by individuals across the country. Phillips' passion also enabled him to convince Congress that he should be allowed to convert the returned and unstruck BTW coins into a new coin program that jointly honored BTW and George Washington Carver. (More about these coins in an upcoming post.)

Passion doesn't guarantee success, but it does give it a fighting chance!

1946-51 Booker T. Washington Birthplace Memorial Half Dollar



For other of my posts about commemorative coins and medals, including more on the BTW half dollars, see: Commems Collection.

For a list of posts specifically about the Design Details of the 1946-51 Booker T. Washington half dollars, see:

- Design Discussions - 1946-51 Booker T. Washington