½ Dollar Columbian Exposition

Features

Commemorative issue

Columbian Exposition

Obverse

Portrait of Columbus facing right with the denomination below

Lettering:
*UNITED STATES OF AMERICA*
COLUMBIAN HALF DOLLAR

Reverse

The ship Santa Maria sailing to the left above 2 half planispheres that divides the date 1492 with a legend around the rim and the date below

Lettering:
WORLD'S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION CHICAGO
14 92
*1892*

Edge

Reeded

© MiguelEmoovie

Mint

Comments

This coin was produced for the  World's Columbian Exposition that took place between the 1st of May to October 30, 1893, in Chicago, Illinois, which celebrated the 400th anniversary of the arrival of Columbus to America.

According to Tom DeLorey Coinage, May 2016, p. 9, the Columbian Exposition half-dollar "came about when the organization putting on the World’s Fair requested a grant from the U.S. Treasury of $5 million to help build the fairgrounds so it could open." The Treasury, however, gave "only $2.5 million due to the prevailing hard economic times." DeLorey goes on to say that someone "connected with the Fair Authority got the brilliant idea that if the Treasury would provide the $2.5 million in the form of five million commemorative half dollars," then the Fair would need only "to sell the coins for a dollar each" in order to obtain the extra $2.5 million dollars needed. Because of hard economic times, however, "only a few hundred thousand were sold at the premium, the rest were either released into circulation at face value or melted."

See also

• Fair and exposition
• Explorer
• Boat and ship

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