Reply to Thread

Message:: [QUOTE="19Lyds, post: 1954998, member: 15929"]It happens more often than you'd think. To answer your initial question, there used to be a Commemorative Coin Program where organizations or even individuals could submit requests for certain Commemorative Coins to be issued by the US Mint. The requestor submitted the design and outlined what was being commemorated. If approved, the coin would be created and then released to the requesting organization who would then sell the coins at a profit to, more or less, support their organizations goals or the celebrations financially. Along the lines of a souvenir coin. For example, PCGS Coins Facts states: "The 1936-S Oakland Bay Bridge half dollar has the unique distinction of being the first and possibly the only commemorative half dollar available for sale at a drive-up window. Examples were offered for sale to automobilists who visited toll booths at each end of the famous span." The programs was very active and in some years, quite a few coins were produced. Some were even produced over several years from multiple branch mints.However, as greedy as it gets, the program was full of corruption with certain individuals submitting requests for "non-existant" celebrations. Continuing to quote from PCGS CoinFacts: "Some commemorative issues turned into a veritable annuity for their issuers, none more so than the Daniel Boone half dollars sold by C. Frank Dunn, whose office was in an upstairs room in the Hotel Phoenix in Lexington, Kentucky. Dunn distributed Daniel Boone half dollars in 1934, ostensibly to commemorate the bicentennial of the famous explorer's birth. Not satisfied to let it go at that, he decided to keep celebrating the situation, and was able to create not one coin, but a set of three coins from three different mints in 1935. As if that were not enough, still more varieties were made for the year 1935, bearing the small date "1934" on the reverse. Additional Boone sets were minted from 1936 through 1938. All of this poured thousands of dollars into Dunn's pockets, amid outcries from collectors who on one hand complained about the inequities of such profiteering, but on the other hand considered their holdings incomplete if they did not own, for example, a rare 1935-D Boone half dollar with small "1934" on the reverse, not available any longer from Dunn, for these had been "sold out" at an early date, but obtainable only on the open market for multiples of the original issue price." "Oregon Trail half dollars, first issued in 1926, turned into another scandal, and by the time the last Oregon half dollars were produced in 1939, just about everyone was thoroughly disgusted with them, with the possible exception of Wayte Raymond (acting for J.W. Scott & Co.), distributor of certain of the later issues. Raymond, by the way, was a professional numismatist of great reputation, and certainly one of the most influential and most important dealers of our century." As such, the program was terminated after 1954. The Commemorative Coin program was revised in 1982 and later revised again to limit the number of coins which could be issued in a single year thanks to the Olympic Events held in the country where some years had more commemorative coins available than people wanted. Under the same type of program, profits from these coins serve the organizations or events which sponsor the coins. In the event that ot enough coins are sold to cover the design and production costs, the US Mint has the ability to NOT forward the profits to the sponsoring organization. The Recent Girl Scouts of America Commemorative Coin was just such a coin as GSA didn't receive any of the profits from the coin. Or so I've heard. At any rate, the United Stated Commemorative Coin Program(s) have a lot of different coins which cover 1892 to present times. Each coin has a story and some of the coins are extremely pleasing design. Others, not so much. Where you go from here is up to you.[/QUOTE]

Log in or Sign up

Reply to Thread

Useful Searches