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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;johnmilton, post: 3627782, member: 101855&quot;]You must remember than the U.S. had not issued any commemorative coins prior to 1848. The true commemorative would not come along until 1892, which was the Columbian Half Dollar. I imagine that getting a commemorative coin bill through Congress would have been pretty tough in 1848. The way this coin was made, with a special counterstamp, could be done without Congressional approval.</p><p><br /></p><p>So far as I know, they were issued as normal coins, but they were probably given to those who had some &quot;pull.&quot; Oddly enough, only about 200 out of the mintage of 1,389 exist today. Apparently, some of those who got them could not resist spending the $2.50, which was a decent amount of money at the time.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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