United States 1935 half dollar KM-169
Authorization
The Act of June 21, 1934 called for the coining of 25,000 half dollars to mark the 300th anniversary of Connecticut's founding. Despite the usual directive that the sponsoring organization pay for all of the Mint's expenses associated with this coinage, the project was actually undertaken by the Public Works Administration (PWA), one of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's "alphabet soup" relief agencies. Local artist Henry G. Kreis (who later created the Bridgeport, Connecticut half dollar) was commissioned to prepare models under the direction of famed sculptor Paul Manship. This collaboration produced superb designs of a highly stylized character. Both the Charter Oak, with its bold, oversized leaves, and the monumental eagle, with its defiant expression, may be included among the finest elements to appear within the commemorative series.
The earliest settlements in Connecticut were established by the Dutch about 1614. As in so many Dutch communities, English settlers soon came in sufficient numbers to dominate this region. No formal government existed until 1635 when John Winthrop the younger, armed with a patent from the Earl of Warwick (who had no legal authority to grant it), proclaimed himself governor of the region. He was ultimately recognized as such by the "freemen" of Connecticut, although the colony itself had no legal standing until 1662 when it was finally granted a royal charter by King Charles II. The King's successor, James II, sought to disband all of the old colonial divisions and declared a consolidated Dominion of New England, naming Sir Edmund Andros as its governor in 1686. Arriving in Hartford, Andros announced before a meeting of the General Court that he had come to seize the royal charter, which was then in the room. Acting quickly, the proud citizens of Connecticut doused the lights, allowing Joseph Wadsworth to grab the precious document and flee the room. He secreted it within an ancient tree on Wyllys Hill, and this silent guardian was ever-afterward known as the Charter Oak. Frustrated in his attempt to gain control of Connecticut and the other obstinate colonies of New England, Andros was soon returned to the Motherland in chains following the overthrow of his patron, James II, in the "Glorious Revolution" of 1688. Connecticut would thereafter be an independent entity until joining the union of states a century later. Acknowledging 1635 as the beginning of formal government in Connecticut, that state appointed a Tercentenary Commission to oversee the celebration planned for 1935.
Obverse
The central element of Sculptor Henry Kreis's, obverse design is the famed Charter Oak. It is modeled after a painting by Charles DeWolf Brownell belonging to the Connecticut Historical Society and created just one year before the tree was toppled in 1856. A fictitious hole has been added for its thematic value; otherwise, the depiction is fairly accurate (discounting the oversize leaves, a bit of artistic license that Mr. Kreis used so that people would recognize this as an oak tree on sight). Below it are the words THE CHARTER OAK. Above, arranged in arcs around the periphery are the statutory inscriptions IN GOD WE TRUST and LIBERTY. The ground beneath the tree forms an exergue in which CONNECTICUT 1635-1935 appears in two lines.
Reverse
On the reverse is a three-quarters view of an eagle perched upon a rocky mound. E PLURIBUS UNUM is to the left of its right leg. Arranged in arcs around the periphery are UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and HALF DOLLAR. The eagle is surrounded by an arc of 13 tiny stars.
Recorded Mintage: 25,018.
Specification: 192.9 grains = 12.50 grams, 0.900 fine silver, 30.6 mm diameter, reeded edge.
Catalog reference: KM 169.
- Breen, Walter H., Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U. S. and Colonial Coins, New York: Doubleday, 1987.
- Slabaugh, Arlie R., United States Commemorative Coinage, 2nd Ed., Racine, WI: Whitman Publishing, 1975.
- Yeoman, R. S., and Kenneth Bressett (ed.), A Guide Book of United States Coins, 65th Ed., Atlanta, GA: Whitman Publishing, 2011
Link to:
- 1934 half dollar, Maryland Tercentenary
- 1935-D cent
- 1935 half dollar, Hudson Sesquicentennial
- 1935-S half dollar, San Diego International Exposition
- 1935 half dollar, Old Spanish Trail
- Coins and currency dated 1935
- return to United States Commemorative Coins, 1892-1954
Gallery
Reproduction of Charles Dewolf Brownell's famous 1855 painting of the Charter Oak Tree.
