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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;johnmilton, post: 24619748, member: 101855&quot;]The Cleveland commemorative half dollar was issued in connection with the Cleveland Centennial and Great Lakes Exposition which was held from June 27 to October 4, 1936. Some called it the “1936 World’s Fair.” It celebrated the 100th anniversary of the founding of Cleveland, Ohio. There were exhibits of technological achievements and the usual carnival style attractions. It cost about $25 million to produce and attracted about 7 million visitors if you count the 1937 summer run.</p><p><br /></p><p>Coin promoter, Thomas Melish, headed up the sales effort. Melish was a collector and promoter who looked for ways to make on buck on commemorative coins. He had some powerful friends in Congress and was sometimes able to get special provisions in commemorative coin legislation that maximized his profits. </p><p><br /></p><p>His most famous coup was the Cincinnati commemorative half dollar. It celebrated nothing, and Melish was able to get Congress to have the coin issued from the Denver, Philadelphia and San Francisco mints. That forced collectors, who wanted the coins, to buy a three coin set. Here is an example of the Cincinnati coin. </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1565407[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Melish tried to get Congress to approve of some &quot;rare&quot; Cleveland coins, including a 1937 issue, but those efforts failed. With a mintage of just over 50 thousand, the Cleveland has been considered to be a &quot;common issue&quot; without much &quot;investment potential&quot; for coin promoters.</p><p><br /></p><p>The issue price was on a sliding scale depending on how many coins you purchased. The first one cost $1.65. If you bought 5, it got down to $1.56. If you bought 100, it was 1.52.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1565408[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Moses Claevland, who founded the city was born in Connecticut in 1754. In 1796 he was appointed as a brigadier general in the U.S. Army. He moved to the Cleveland area the same year, looking for better farmland than what he had tried to till in New England. His settlement, which was located where the Cuyahoga River flows into the Lake Erie, proved to be a good location for a trading post. The name of the town was slightly shortened from Claevland to Cleveland so that it would fit on the masthead of a newspaper, the <i>Cleveland Advertiser.</i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p>Every commemorative coin has a history, some more interesting than others. The stories include coins that should never had been made, like the Cincinnati half dollar and the over issues of the Oregon Trail, Boone and Texas half dollars among others. There were also coins of importance, like the the 1892 Columbian Exposition and 1926 Philadelphia Sesquicentennial coins, and coins that were issued fairly, like the 1946 Iowa half dollar. BTW I am quite sure that neither the Cincinnati nor the Iowa half dollar posted below, has been dipped.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1565411[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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