From Slave Cabin To Hall Of Fame

Booker T. Washington was a fantastic American figure in the 19th and early 20th century. He was an educator, a man of letters and a distinguished career of intellectual thought. Booker T. Washington was the first African American man ever invited to the White House and the first African American depicted on a postage stamp and coin.

I've long wanted Martin Luther King to be honored with a circulating coin but have always shuddered to think of the kinds of ugly defacement some of those coins might receive by griefers.

I can't fathom how these coins would have been received by a country that still had Jim Crow, segregated schools, and institutional racism at every turn.

Here is the 1946 Philly Booker T. It's a common commemorative. Over a million were produced... about half of that was melted. PCGS estimates a whopping 190,000 in MS65 or above are still available.

This clean frost white coin grades out at MS-65.