United States 1935 half dollar KM-170

From CoinVarieties
Jump to navigation Jump to search
US 1935 50C Hudson 1z.jpg

Authorization

Henry Hudson was the first European to explore the Hudson River throughout its navigable length and leave behind a detailed description of his voyage. In the fall of 1609, Henry Hudson and his ship, the Half Moon, with a crew of 20 Dutch and English sailors explored the Hudson River from New York harbor up to present day Albany, NY.

Henry Hudson was already a famous explorer of Arctic waters when in 1608 he was hired by the Dutch East India Company to find a northeast, all-water route to Asia. The Dutch East India Company had a monopoly on trade with the Orient and wanted to shorten the lengthy and expensive voyage around the Cape of Good Hope to the Orient.

They provided Hudson with the 85-foot Half Moon to sail eastward through the polar regions to reach the far east. The Half Moon sailed from Amsterdam on April 4 or 6, 1609, and headed northeast along the coast of Norway. After encountering ice and cold that blocked his passage, Hudson turned and headed west.

Hudson sailed west across the North Atlantic and landed on the coast of Maine where the crew went ashore to cut timber to replace the Half Moon's mast, fished, and traded with the Native Americans. Hudson and the Half Moon then continued along the coast south to the Chesapeake Bay and Delaware Bay. Hudson decided these weren't entrances to the passage to the Orient he was seeking, and the Half Moon turned north towards the mouth of the Hudson River.

On September 12, 1609, Hudson began his exploration of the river now named after him. Although no passage was discovered to the Orient, the area turned out to be one of the best fur trading regions in North America. The Half Moon left the river on October 4, sailed across the Atlantic and reached England on Saturday, November 7. Hudson and the English crew members were not permitted to leave England, but eventually the Half Moon returned to Holland without them. Hudson's voyage came 10 years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock and two years after the Jamestown colony was established 60 miles south of the entrance to Chesapeake Bay.

The following year he returned with a crew of twenty-five men in the English ship Discovery and sailed into what is now called Hudson Bay, exploring the east coast as far south as James Bay. After two icebound winters, his crew grew mutinous from a shortage of food and set Hudson adrift, along with his son and seven other sick crew members. The ship returned to England where the mutineers were tried for their crime but found not guilty. Nothing was ever heard of Hudson again. A village grew up on the river 28 miles south of Albany, and by 1785 the town was anointed with the name Hudson. One hundred and fifty years later, in 1935, the city fathers of Hudson, New York sought to commemorate the sesquicentennial of the town's founding. Congress passed a bill authorizing the minting of 10,000 Hudson Sesquicentennial halves (as well as 50,000 Rhode Island Tercentenary halves), and it was signed into law by President Roosevelt on May 2, 1935.

In a hearing before the Senate Committee on Banking and Currency in March of 1936, American Numismatic Association Legislative Committee Chairman L.W. Hoffecker addressed the difficulty experienced by collectors desiring to buy the coins at the issue price. Hoffecker testified that he believed a single coin dealer had purchased the majority of the mintage at a discounted rate. While he declined to publicly name the party in question, insiders at the time were slyly referring to the Hudson coins as "Guttag half dollars." Even today, there are well-founded rumors that as many as a thousand coins may still exist in the estates of some families in the Hudson River Valley. As recently as 1982, one family was known to still own eight original rolls. Although there is little chance that these 160 coins will be dispersed anytime soon, their eventual release is unlikely to result in any significant increase in the availability of gem examples.

Obverse

Chester Beach

Prominent sculptor-medallist Chester Beach was chosen to prepare the sketches and models. Although the Sesquicentennial Committee initially favored a portrait of Henry Hudson on the coin's obverse, Beach prepared several different proposals, one featuring Hudson's Half Moon in place of the portrait, and this motif was ultimately approved. The obverse depicts the Half Moon with billowing sails and the word HUDSON in the waves below. The inscription UNITED STATES OF AMERICA arcs above at the rim, with the motto IN GOD WE TRUST just below. At the lower border is the denomination HALF DOLLAR. A curious addition to the obverse was a crescent moon in the upper left field. From Beach's original correspondence concerning the obverse design, apparently the artist was unaware of the difference between a quarter moon and a half moon, as he called the intended symbol the latter, which it clearly is not. Beach's monogram CB is seen on the left side of the obverse just above the waves.

Reverse

The reverse reproduces the city seal of Hudson. Neptune is seen riding a whale, seated backwards, while in the background is a mermaid blowing a conch shell. This rather whimsical design is framed by a large scroll that contains the city motto: ET DECUS ET PRETIUM RECTI - "Both the honor and reward of the righteous." Below the seal is the motto E PLURIBUS UNUM, and encircling the border is the inscription CITY OF HUDSON NY and the dual dates 1785-1935.

Mintage

The Philadelphia Mint struck the authorized maximum of 10,000 coins (along with eight reserved for assay), and distribution was handled by the First National Bank and Trust Company of Hudson. Few collectors, however, were able to obtain specimens at the issue price of $1 each. Although the coins were received from the Mint on June 28, by July 2 the entire mintage was supposedly sold out. The official line was that orders for the coins had been taken since early May, though few collectors could have been aware of the coins' pending debut so soon after the authorizing act. Allegedly, New York coin dealer Julius Guttag purchased 7,500 coins for 95 cents apiece, and Hubert Carcaba of St. Augustine, Florida bought another 1,000 pieces. A month after the first coins were distributed, they had reached a peak of $12.50 on the secondary market, the highest price that Hudsons would reach until after the Second World War. Several months later, individual pieces settled into the $4.50 to $7.00 price range, and they saw wide distribution at that level.

Specification: 192.9 grains = 12.50 grams, 0.900 fine silver, 30.6 mm diameter, reeded edge.

Catalog reference: KM 170.

Source:

  • 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:

Retrieved from "https://coinvarieties.com/index.php?title=United_States_1935_half_dollar_KM-170&oldid=140149"