I found this when I started a fresh box of halves. AMERICANISM-FREEDOM AND OPPORTUNITY FOR ALL. Never even knew this existed. What a find on election eve and how very appropriate.
Very nice coin you obtained, might be AU, could also be MS. I've never seen this commemorative before, either.
I've never examined one of those up close. The denomination is so small that it gets lost among the clutter. At first glance, it looks like a token more than a commemorative half.
Thanks for the comments. Yes a real surprise. I can’t imagine why anyone would put this into circulation. And it’s silver. With my interest peaked I looked up the series on line. Extremely low mintages for the most part and high valuation. What a gorgeous set! The engravers that worked on this were nothing short of amazing. Real artists that created some really nice looking coins. Here are a couple of links if anyone is interested in following up. https://www.ngccoin.com/coin-explorer/silver-commemoratives-1892-1954-pscid-71https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_United_States_commemorative_coins https://www.ngccoin.com/coin-explorer/silver-commemoratives-1892-1954-pscid-71
Fun fact: the designer, Isaac Scott Hathaway, was the first African-American to design a U.S. coin, the Booker T. Washington commemorative that preceded the coin above.
Very interesting fact. I’ve looked at more coins in this series. A lot of nice looking stuff that is really untouchable for me unless I hit the lottery. Wish we had that artistic quality in today’s coins.
