The history of the classic US commemorative series includes multiple cases of coin proposals that sought to honor an event closely-related to one that had previously been celebrated with a legal tender commemorative piece.
Here are a few:
- In 1941, a coin to mark the 150th anniversary of Vermont's statehood was proposed. It followed the 1927 commemorative 50-cent piece that was issued to jointly mark the 150th anniversary of the independence of Vermont and the Battle of Bennington. Vermont declared its independence from Great Britain and the American colonies in 1777, but fought with the colonies against the British during the American Revolution. The "Vermont Republic" was admitted to the Union in 1791 as the 14th state. The unsuccessful 1941 commemorative proposal would basically have honored the beginnings of the State of Vermont twice within a 14-year span.
- If Senator Alexander Wiley (R-WI) or Representative Frank Keefe (R-WI) had had their way in 1947, the 1936 Wisconsin Territorial half-dollar would have been joined in 1948 by a coin marking the 100th anniversary of Wisconsin's admission into the Union. A number of states had recently tried and failed to get a statehood anniversary commemorative coin, but that didn't deter Wisconsin from seeking a second "origin" coin!
- I've previously posted about the attempted 1947 revival of the Oregon Trail Memorial series by a group in Idaho; the coin program had been stopped by Congress in 1939. You can read the post here:
http://goccf.com/t/163720 The Oregon Trail was already among the most over-commemorated events in US history, had the 1947 proposal been approved the situation would have gone from bad to worse.
And here's an example of a reverse scenario:
- The issued 1946 Centennial of Iowa Statehood half dollar was preceded by an unsuccessful 1938 proposal for a coin marking the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Iowa Territory. We'll never know if a 1946 Statehood coin would have been proposed as a follow-up to an issued 1938 Territory coin, but it wouldn't have been much of a surprise if it had!
Double-dips often add flavor to life. Numismatically speaking, however, they tend to abuse the collector's wallet. I'm glad we got what we got for each of the above, and I'm glad that that's all we got!
Read More: Commems Collection
Posted 02/16/2015 7:53 pm
