5894

1893 50¢ Columbian Commemorative Half Dollar (PCGS MS 64+) (CAC)

Currency:USD Category:Sports - Cards & Fan Shop Start Price:50.00 USD
1893 50¢ Columbian Commemorative Half Dollar (PCGS MS 64+) (CAC)

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Auction Date:2018 Dec 27 @ 20:00 (UTC-7 : PDT/MST)
Location:2320 W Peoria Ave Suite B142, Phoenix, Arizona, 85029, United States
Graded PCGS MS 64+. Please see the images for more details on the condition of the coin.

The Columbian half dollar is a coin issued by the Bureau of the Mint in 1892 and 1893. The first United States commemorative coin, it was issued both to raise funds for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition and to mark the quadricentennial of the first voyage to the Americas of Christopher Columbus, whose portrait it bears. The Columbian half dollar was the first American coin to depict a historical person.

The coin stems from the desire of the Columbian Exposition's organizers to gain federal money to complete construction of the fair. Congress granted an appropriation, and allowed it to be in the form of commemorative half dollars, which legislators and organizers believed could be sold at a premium. Fair official James Ellsworth wanted the new coin to be based on a 16th-century painting he owned by Lorenzo Lotto, reputedly of Columbus, and pushed for this through the design process. When initial sketches by Mint Chief Engraver Charles E. Barber proved unsatisfactory, fair organizers turned to a design by artist Olin Levi Warner, which after modification by Barber and by his assistant, George T. Morgan, was struck by the Mint.