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CCF Master Historian of USA Commemoratives
 United States
12251 Posts |
During a March 1936 Senate Committee on Banking and Currency Hearing to discuss 13 different commemorative coin proposals introduced in either the Senate (12 of 13) or House (1 of 13), Mr. Frank G. Duffield, Editor of the American Numismatic Association's The Numismatist magazine, discussed some of the abuses seen with the sale/distribution of the Hudson, NY half dollar.
In response, Senator Francis Thomas Maloney (D-CT) stated, "It would be pretty hard for the Congress to go into the detail necessary in order to regulate the distribution of these coins."
To this, Mr. Duffield stated: "I concede that. Suggestions have been offered to me that the Government take over the distribution of commemorative coins, much as they do the Philatelic Bureau. I have had one man suggest the Government handle the distribution and sale of these commemorative half dollars and turn the profit over to the commission for whom [it was] issued. I do not think the Government would do a thing of that kind. It seems to be a very desirable way for them to be handled if it could be done, so that the average collector would be able to get his at the original price."
Such a statement turned out to be "Nostradamus-like" in that, approximately 40 years later, the Department of the Treasury and Bureau of the Mint were engaged in managing the sale and distribution of the collector sets of the US Bicentennial commemorative coins and would, a few years later, begin their roles as the sales, marketing and distribution managers for the coins of the modern US commemorative series.
Out of the mouths of babes editors...
Collecting history one coin or medal at a time! (c) commems. All rights reserved.
Edited by commems
04/14/2022 09:03 am
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Posted 04/14/2022 11:06 am
