The 1st Lincoln Comm.

You mean this one?

Even though it is frequently(and incorrectly) referred to as a Lincoln commemorative, it is the Illinois Centennial commem, the reverse is the Illinois State Seal and Illinois became a state in 1818.

my goodness Biokemist, where did you ever find such a nice example?

Bio....
Sounds like there's no chance that you'd let me have that coin then ?

Its not scarce enough to buy the first one you see(unless it is primo perfecto). Depending on how much you want to spend there are plenty available for you to be a bit picky. I would like to get another one that is a very nice Xf-45 or so. I think they look great circulated. If you scroll down to the bottom of the Comm. forum there is another topic on them.

There are two types of commems- classic commems(1892-1956) and modern commems(1982-present). The classics were generally half dollars and tended to have mintages of less than 100,000. Also, classic commems can sometimes be found in circulated condition(like the one I pictured) since silver half dollars freely floated about in commerce at the time. Moderns tend to be dollars and an occasional clad half with mintages in the hundreds of thousands and are almost never circulated. There are very few classics that you will find for $30-50 but most moderns will fall in that price point. The Lincoln commem is worth about $75 in circulated condition to about $150-175 in mid MS grades.