Commems Collection Classic: What If? 1963 Speakers Of The House Series

I've posted before about the proposals for thematic series to be struck by the US Mint (see links below), but I haven't yet exhausted the supply of them!

In May 1963, Representative Albert McKinley Rains (D-AL) introduced a bill that called for an ongoing series of 50-cents pieces "in commemoration of the birth, life, and accomplishments of any Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States."

The bill was quite detailed in its guidelines for the coin issues; no coins could be issued:

(1) during the lifetime of the person so memorialized.
(2) more than once with respect to any such person.
(3) at more than one United States mint.
(4) in any quantity less than twenty-five thousand.
(5) except upon the request of an eligible sponsoring organization (as defined in section 6).
(6) unless security satisfactory to the Secretary of the Treasury shall first he furnished for the payment of the costs of production of such coins in excess of the cost of other coinage of like denomination.

It was also stipulated that "The Secretary of the Treasury may not coin or issue commemorative coins with respect to more than two persons in any one calendar year."

Section 6 of the bill (in regards to the reference above) specified that to be eligible to sponsor a coin, an organization had to be tax-exempt and "operated by a responsible and active board of directors or board of trustees for the purpose of perpetuating the memory of the person so memorialized or providing for the care and maintenance of the birthplace."

Based on its stated guidelines, there was not a "waiting period" for the issue of a commemorative half dollar. Once a Speaker had passed, he/she was immediately eligible to be honored with a coin. (For comparison, the recent Presidential $1 Coin program included a minimum two-year waiting period.) IMO, the provision limiting each Speaker to one coin was smart, considering how many Speakers have served multiple terms in the House and thus an associated opportunity for multiple corresponding coins to be issued.

The bill specified a minimum of 25,000 coins for any issue, but did not specify a maximum; this would have allowed for the potential flexibility needed to support the more popular Speakers, while simultaneously preventing the creation of any contrived rarities.

The bill was referred to the House Committee on Banking and Currency, but was never the subject of discussion at a Committee Hearing or reported out by it; it died for lack of action.

If the series had been approved, future-at-the-time-he-was-Speaker-president James Knox Polk (11th US President, 1845-49) might have been honored with a coin. Schuyler Colfax (1869-73, under US Grant) and John Nance Garner (1933-41, under Franklin Delano Roosevelt), future vice presidents, may also have been memorialized with a coin.

To read the posts I mentioned above, check out:

- 1923 Deceased Presidents Coinage
- 1936 Presidential Coins
- 1957 State Commemorative Coins
- 1960s Statehood Half Dollar Series

To read the What If? post I made about a bill proposing to honor 23-term Representative and four-term Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon, check out:

- 1928 Joseph Gurney Cannon

Note: I'm planning a future post about the related coinage proposals that called for commemorative coins to honor the popular multi-term Speaker, Sam Rayburn. Stay tuned!


For other of my "What If?" posts about failed commemorative coin bills, check out: Read More: Commems Collection.