3589

[L#3589] 1934-S 50c PCGS MS65

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money Start Price:1,000.00 USD Estimated At:4,000.00 - 5,000.00 USD
[L#3589] 1934-S 50c PCGS MS65
Intense white cartwheel luster graces the frosty surfaces of this attractively fresh gem. A blend of roll-white color cascades around both sides. The strike is much sharper than most, with clear hand and head detail, not quite 100% razor-sharp but bold enough to warrant mention. Scarce.

Half dollar production increased markedly in 1934 over what it had been in 1933, the year President Roosevelt took office for the first of his four terms. While there certainly had been instances of government regulation and welfare prior to FDR's presidency, the long-established American tradition had been based on free enterprise (that is, free from government regulation), wealth accumulation (especially prior to the enactment of the tax amendment in 1913), and private charity (as compared to government welfare).

Breaking with that long tradition, Franklin Roosevelt ushered in one of the most revolutionary economic transformations in history. Under his New Deal, the primary purposes of the federal government became to regulate business enterprise and tax and redistribute wealth in the form of government welfare.

Consider, for example, his 1933 National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA), which directed the heads of all major industries in the country to jointly establish codes that would set minimum prices and wages for their respective industries. All businesses within each industry were then prohibited by law from competing with lower prices and wages.

He used his power over the money supply to increase production of currency and coin issues dramatically beginning in 1934 with an eye to funding much of his New Deal.