1921 Alabama Centennial (2x2)

Love the eagle!

Excellent coin! I am currently in the market for one for my 7070. Living in Alabama, I got to have one. I am sure you realize the premium on that coin because of the 2x2 on it (I only sat that because of your comment about "Here We Rest"). The estimates of mintage are between 5-15K. I love learning about coins and their history. This site is very helpful. Again, excellent coin!

Geepers ..... another great coin .....

A few comments before bed-time (work calls tomorrow) .... Fun facts as follows ......

This is one of the great USA coins designed by Laura Fraser .... her husband also being a famous USA coin designer ( Buffalo nickel and others). You can have great fun researching both of their prolific careers in USA coin history.

This is the first USA coin to exhibit the image of a living person .... 1920 Alabama Governor Thomas E. Kilby. This alone is a great coin trivia question answer.

You read my comments on the 2*2 (star) variety in your Missouri thread ...... so I won't repeat them here in detail ..... the only goal was separating the collectors of the time from their hard earned money.

This coin has an unusual compendium of confusing dates ..... follow me here on this logic ....

The 100th anniversary of Alabama Statehood was 1919 ..... the coin was authorized by Congress in 1920 ..... and was finally struck at the Philadelphia mint in late 1921 .... a full 2 years after the Centennial celebrations had ended.

So the coin has three 'official' dates on it .... 1819, 1919 and 1921 ...... this was very confusing to the consumer at the time.

Imagine that happening today?

To this coin .... another beautiful and well struck example IMHO.

The clue to strike weakness on this coin is the eagle front (left) leg and neck ..... and by your photo these are fully struck up.

Some concern about the reverse rim at 7:00 ..... is that damage?

Great coin ..... I see no reason why this could not earn a scary technical grade from a TPG ..... MS-66 is not of of the question IMHO.

This is a very valuable coin today ..... take care to preserve what your grandmother left you ..... and let us know what eventually becomes of your efforts to understand the coins and history.

David

Excellent ...... you have the right attitude of respect for these great coins and the wonderful (and very valuable) gift you have been blessed with.

You said the key words yourself ....




I agree 100% with that sentiment. And that is the only goal of this free forum ...... education for the collectors benefit.

You found the CCF as a way to begin to understand the gift you were left ..... we've offered some advise ... you have listened .... but at the end of the day all decisions about these great coins are up to you.

I encourage you to learn all you can about them ...... one great book IMHO can help a lot as a reference ....

A Guide Book of United States Commemorative Coins .... Q. David Bowers ..... ISBN 0794822568.

This book is a $20 investment ..... and worth its weight in gold for anyone learning about the series.

Keep the photos coming ......

David

I'd like to add to the story of Laura Fraser...
She designed the winning 25c piece to memorialize
Washington's 200th birthday in 1932. A gorgeous
quarter design that would have been with us until
1998, except that the mint director at the time
felt like it was "a man's place" to design coins.

He totally overturned Laura's fair and legal win
in the competition over the quarter's design.

The runner up design was placed into production
for the Washington quarter. IMHO, that design
was nice, but not even half the quality of
Laura's design. I hope one day, when the mint
gets off of it's quarter flavor of the month
program, they will right the wrong and give us
Laura's quarter for a good, solid century.

To see Laura's quarter, just look at my avatar.

I think Florida should invade Alabama and take their state motto. It rains here too much to be the sunshine state and with all of the retirees, "Here We Rest" just seems much more appropriate. We even have the St. Andrew cross in our state flag so the transition would be smooth.