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Message:: [QUOTE="Dougmeister, post: 2364631, member: 56842"]Somewhat off-topic, but the OP said I could post it ;-) I came across the Wikipedia article for the 1892-93 Columbian Expo half dollar commemorative (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbian_half_dollar" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbian_half_dollar" rel="nofollow">Link</a>) and thought it was neat that they had Barber's original concept art. This many not actually "belong" in this thread, since the original design was (as far as I can tell) scrapped and re-designed by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olin_Levi_Warner" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olin_Levi_Warner" rel="nofollow">Olin Levi Warner</a>. But still a cool comparison. [ATTACH=full]482785[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]482787[/ATTACH] Some neat "factoids" (for the Paul Harvey fans out there: "... and now you know... the REST of the story!):<ul> <li>The first U.S. commemorative coin</li> <li>First American coin to depict a historical person</li> <li>Issued to raise funds for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition </li> <li>Also commemorated 400th anniversary of 1st voyage of Christopher Columbus to the New World </li> <li>That failed miserably; over half of the 5 million were melted down</li> <li>Iowa Senator William B. Allison said concerning the coins: "Children would cry for them and the old men would demand them."</li> <li>Barber added his monogram "B" to the design; it is on the cut-off of the bust above the letter B in "Columbian"</li> <li>Morgan's "M" is hidden in the rigging of the ship on the reverse</li> <li>The Boston Globe noted, "The first view of the new Columbian souvenir coin inevitably leads to expression of regret that Columbus wasn't a better looking man." (Oh, snap!)</li> <li>One reason for the lack of sales, and for the poor condition of many surviving specimens, was that while the fair was open, the economic Panic of 1893 began, one of the worst depressions in the nation's history—fifty cents could make the difference between a family eating or starving at a time when the average visitor to the fair spent $1.18. Fairgoers were disinclined to exchange a dollar for a fifty-cent piece, and those who had bought before the crash often spent their souvenirs</li> </ul>[/QUOTE]

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