Episode 1207
California Pacific International Exposition half dollar
Mon, 2020-Aug-24 00:16 UTC
Length - 2:08
Direct Link
Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day where we read the summary of the featured Wikipedia article every day.
The featured article for Monday, 24 August 2020 is California Pacific International Exposition half dollar.
The California Pacific International Exposition half-dollar, sometimes called the California Pacific half-dollar or the San Diego half-dollar, is a commemorative fifty-cent piece struck by the United States Bureau of the Mint in 1935 and 1936. Robert I. Aitken designed the coin. Its obverse depicts Minerva and other elements of the Seal of California; the reverse shows buildings from the California Pacific International Exposition (held 1935–1936), which the coin was issued to honor.
Legislation for the half-dollar moved through Congress without opposition in early 1935, and Aitken was hired to design it. Once his creation was approved, the San Francisco Mint produced 250,000 coins, but expected sales did not materialize. Left with over 180,000 pieces they could not sell, the Exposition Commission went back to Congress for further legislation so it could return the unsold pieces and have new coins, dated 1936, hoping for greater sales in the second year of the fair's run. Although the Commission was successful in getting the legislation passed, it was less so in selling the coins, and 150,000 1936-dated pieces were returned to the Mint. The coins, of either date, sell in the low hundreds of dollars today.
This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:16 UTC on Monday, 24 August 2020.
For the full current version of the article, see California Pacific International Exposition half dollar on Wikipedia.
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This has been Matthew Standard. Thank you for listening to featured Wiki of the Day.
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