Commems Collection Modern: What If? 2001 September 11th - Circulating Half Dollar

In addition the circulating commemorative coins for the US Bicentennial, Lewis and Clark Westward Journey and Lincoln Birth Bicentennial, the US Congress has considered the issue of a number of other circulating commemorative pieces.

I'm planning a quick review of each via a series of upcoming posts. In this post, I'll cover the call "for a circulating commemorative coin to commemorate the events of September 11, 2001."

The bill authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to "mint and issue a sufficient number of half-dollar coins to circulate, commemorating the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001." Regarding the coin's designs, "the obverse of the coins minted under this Act shall depict the twin towers of the World Trade Center prior to the attack of September 11, 2001. The design on the reverse of the coin shall depict a representation of the Pentagon prior to the attack and a tribute to United flight 93 which crashed in Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001."

In addition to the standard, mandated inscriptions, the obverse design was also to include the inscription "Freedom" near the depiction of the World Trade Center.

The designs were to be selected by the Secretary of the Treasury "in consultation with the Citizens Commemorative Coin Advisory Committee and the Commission on Fine Arts." (The design provisions would have created a circulation coin without a portrait on one side (either allegorical or actual), a very atypical situation for a US coin.)

The coin was to be dated "2001" regardless of when it was struck - somewhat reminiscent (in mirror fashion) of such mid-1930s coin bills as the Landing of the Swedes in Delaware Tercentenary half dollar (dated "1936" per legislation though a 1938 anniversary) and the Battle of Gettysburg 75th Anniversary half dollar (also with a date of "1936" per legislation though marking a 1938 anniversary). (Disregard of Mint protocol #1.)

In addition to the half dollars struck for circulation, up to 750,000 Proof and Uncirculated coins were authorized as "numismatic items." The collector/numismatic version was to include a "W" (West Point) mint mark, regardless of which facility produced the coins. (Disregard of Mint protocol #2.)

The authority to strike the coins extended to December 31, 2003. Potentially, the coins could have been struck in 2001, 2002 and 2003, but all would have featured the "issue date" of 2001.

The bill's language does not include any reference to the coin being a replacement for the Kennedy Half Dollar, so it appears likely that it was meant to circulate alongside the Kennedy piece.

The bill was introduced in March 2002, during the 107th Congress, in the House of Representatives by Steven R. Rothman (D-NJ). It was referred to the House Committee on Financial Services. with a further referral to its Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy, Technology and Economic Growth. Included in his introductory remarks for his coin bill, Representative Rothman offered:

A generation ago, the events of December 7th, 1941 became not only a day of infamy, but also a reference point that no one has forgotten. My father knows precisely where he was on that Sunday in December, just as I suspect nearly all Americans know what they were doing when the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were attacked.

Events of cataclysmic proportion, as well as epic struggles, have long been commemorated on the coinage of various countries. Canada's tombac nickel, for example, issued in 1943, contains a new reverse design from the famous Churchill ``V'' for victory over the Nazi Axis war machine.

America's circulating coinage is not so different. The heraldic eagles utilized on the reverse of our coinage has [sic] had the beak of the eagle pointed, variously, to olive branches of peace, or towards the talons holding arrows of war.

Nonetheless, important historical personages, as well as historic events, have long been common on coinage. That's precisely the reason why the destruction of the World Trade Center in New York, a galvanizing event if ever there was one, deserves permanent memorialization on our nation's coinage.

Rothman's stirring introduction notwithstanding, the bill failed to resonate with his colleagues and was not reported out of Committee, subject to a Hearing or considered further by the House. Maybe Congress felt it was "too soon."


For more of my posts about commemorative coins and medals, including other modern commemorative coin stories, see: Commems Collection.