Featured A brief history of the Pilgrim commemorative half dollar

Revenues from the sales of the Pilgrim Tercentenary Commemorative Half Dollar were used to sponsor a celebration that marked the 300th anniversary of the founding of the settlement in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The coins were distributed through the National Shawmut Bank of Boston.

At the end of 1920, it seemed that the demand for the coin had not been exhausted. Given that the authorized number of pieces had not been struck, and additional mintage was struck in 1921. The sales were disappointing, and most of the 1921 dated pieces and some of the 1920 issue were returned to the mint and melted.

The obverse features William Bradford (1590 to 1657) who was the governor of the Plymouth Colony for all but five years between 1621 and 1657. He replaced the first governor, John Carver, who had died of influenza soon after the settlers landed in the late fall of 1620. He was a popular and effective leader who led the group though some of its most trying times.

The Pilgrims were a religious separatist group who immigrated to America from Holland. Their movement originated in England, where their desire to break entirely from the official religion, The Church of England, made them totally unacceptable to King James I.

They immigrated to Leyden, Holland where they were welcome to practice their religion as they saw fit, but barred from craftsmen’s guilds which forced them to take low-paying menial jobs. They also saw that after 12 years, their children were taking on the ways of the Dutch instead of the English. These factors prompted them to immigrate to America.

They landed north of their intended destination at the tip of Cape Cod, near modern Provence Town. Noting that the area did not look hospitable, they eventually chose Plymouth, Massachusetts for their settlement.

The first year was very hard. Half of the settlers died from exposure and disease during their first winter. In the spring, some friendly Indians helped them to learn to plant corn, which became an important staple. Just when it appeared that they were going to have a reasonably good winter, another boatload of settlers arrived from England. Once more they were on short rations.

Despite the privations, the colony was able to survive. Its growth potential was limited, however. The waters in the port in Plymouth were too shallow to support the ships that would have made the colony thrive, as it did for the Puritans in Boston. In addition, the Pilgrims strict code of conduct discouraged others from joining their sect. Ultimately, they were absorbed into the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the late 1600s.

The Fate of the Mayflower
The reverse of the coin features and image of the Mayflower, the ship that took the Pilgrims to America. After landing in Plymouth in the fall of 1620 it remained there until the spring when it returned to its home port, Rotherhithe, England, which is located down the Themes River from London. Its next assignment was to carry a load of salt to France. Following that assignment, the ship’s captain and partial owner, Christopher Jones, died, perhaps from the deprivations he had suffered in America. For the next two years, the ship remained tied up at port until it became a rotting hulk. It was sold and broken up for salvage in 1624.


The coin above is housed in an NGC “old fatty holder.” It has medium browning toning, lots of luster and virtually mark-free surfaces. As such it is a very high end example for the assigned MS-64 grade.

 

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Love the write up. Something about the design of this coin has always made it one of my favorites.

Mine is raw, AU-ish.

 

Very interesting. My wife is a descendant of the Mayflower folks.

 

You are fortunate. My father-in-law tried really hard to find a link, but could not prove one.

 

The piece has a wonderful aesthetic quality to its' design. The Pilgrim commem is one of the very few that I liked even when I was a kid.

 

Nice write-up...thanks.

Raw (cracked out of an AU58 PCGS slab)...1920...

 

Good write up. Recently read a book called The Mayflower The families the voyage and the founding of America. I believe it was written by an English author that lives over there. Very briefly focused on the voyage itself, which in itself was a harrowing experience with tight quarters on an overloaded ship. Most of the book goes into far more detail than I imagined we had info for. In all honesty was pretty dry reading but did open my eyes to the full extent of the struggles they had. Very in depth. Some brutal stuff happened while they were hashing things out. Didn't have many horses or cows to work with for quite a while. They owed a lot of money to the people who financed their trip. They worked and traded with indians to send products back to England to pay the debts. There was a lot of initial strife as some families did not want their loved ones to leave England.

I never realized the journey to America took two months but the return journey took only a month. The Mayflower was a slow merchant ship at the time never meant to haul that many passengers. They initially set off with another ship, the Speedwell but after two attempts, the Speedwell sprang leaks and both trips they had to turn around. At last they left the Speedwell behind and those passengers crammed onto the Mayflower while some decided to stay behind. Another interesting tidbit, the Mayflower carried cannons. They feared pirates and possible indian attack so they were packing. Most of them had to live on the ship to survive the first winter. It didn't sound like a pleasant experience.

Here's my MS-64. I bought the silver set and the gold $10 proof last year to go with it for the 400th. All beautiful coins.

 

I think I have three of these because I like the ship and the waves. One is BU, one is nicely toned and then this one for my very worn commemorative set

 

On the pilgrim theme, here is a Mardi Gras Doubloon I caught in 1970 from Pete Fountain's Half/Fast Walking Club. Doubloons were tossed into the crowd as the band walked past on Poydras Street in downtown New Orleans. I was able to snag this one!

Anyway, saluting the Pilgrims!

Obverse...



Reverse...

 

I just learned today that only 37 of the 102 passengers were Separatists aka Puritans. It's interesting that I spent my whole "educated" life with the impression that everybody on board was seeking religious freedom. My maternal grandmother traced her genealogy back to a bit later in the 1620s and my paternal grandfather claimed that his side went back to the Mayflower, but I'm skeptical of the latter. I ran into the number of actual Separatists on board from this BBC article, which is interesting for the estimates of Mayflower descendants living today. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-57698818

The coin is one of my favorite designs. I got mine from my grandmother.

 

I am also a fan of the design. Here is a FS-901 I cherrypicked last year.

 

Very nice write-up, @johnmilton , and one of my favorite of the classic commems.

Here's mine in its error slab:

 

Very nice write up on the Pilgrim Commemorative Half, great history and a great time to live in the US even if the coin sales didn't meet the expectations! I don't have the half dollar but here's my Pilgrim Token, a lot of Pilgrim talk around that era!

 

Nice one!

I don’t have a Pilgrim commemorative but I do have a California commemorative also an MS64.

 

Too lazy to take it out of the 2x2.

 

I’m not into commemorative coons but I need four of them for my Dansco. This was the first one I choose.

 

Very interesting Rob!

 

Interesting, my wife has a friend that also had a family member that came on the Mayflower. If I can find out who I'll post it.