Arkansas Centennial – 1935 – 1939

The 15 Types of 1935-1939 Arkansas Centennial

The people and legislators from the State of Arkansas were planning a celebration in Little Rock in 1936 to celebrate the centennial of Arkansas’s Admission to the Union. The legislation that they proposed passed Congress and was signed into law by President Franklin Roosevelt.

The Arkansas Centennial Commission was formed to plan the statewide celebrations and select a designer and handle the distribution of the coins. The Commission sought a local artist to create the original designs for the coin. So they held a competition to find an artist who would create a coin that typified the spirit of Arkansas. Arkansas sculptor and artist, Edward Everett Burr won the design competition and the honor of creating the designs. But his designs were rejected by the Commission of Fine Arts, which advised the Mint on all matters artistic. Nevertheless, the designs were lauded by the Arkansas Centennial Commission and they had their way.

Another Arkansas artist, Emily Bates, created the models sent to the Mint. Burr’s design depicted a Native American chief, with a headdress, from 1836 and a modern Arkansas girl of 1935 on the obverse. The conjoined busts faced left. The words “ARKANSAS CENTENNIAL” were below the busts at the bottom periphery. There were also two dates in from of the faces – “1836” and “1936” as appropriate for the Centennial.

The reverse depicts an eagle with wings spread perched on a rising sun. A diamond shape is behind the eagle with 13 five-pointed stars contained within and inside the diamond the name “ARKANSAS” and four additional stars, which were adapted from the state flag. Across the top periphery are the legend “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA” and the denomination “HALF DOLLAR” is across the bottom periphery on the sun. The sun also has the current date “1935” and behind the eagle is a ribbon that extends the width of the coin with the mottoes “IN GOD WE TRUST” and “E PLURIBUS UNUM” on it.

Like a number of Classic Commemorative coins, some publications consider the obverse and reverse to be the opposite of what we claim here. The Red Book does so, but records from the Mint discredit these claims. Additionally, this coin came along at a difficult juncture for Commemorative Coins. A number of issues had been created that actually were not deemed to be worthy of commemoration by the issuance of a United States commemorative coin. Further, a number of those issues not only were spurious in their intent but they were being sold by promoters who over-promoted the coins and created imaginary shortages simply to raise prices.

The legislation proposed a maximum of 500,000 coins to be authorized and although 1936 was the actual Centennial Year, the coins were struck at all three mints – Philadelphia, Denver and San Francisco – in 1935, a full year before the Centennial celebrations were due to take place in Little Rock and across the state.

That initial year, 1935, Philadelphia struck only 13,012 coins, Denver struck a mere 5,505 coins and San Francisco struck 5,506 coins. During the actual Centennial year, 1936, they struck 9,660 coins in Denver and 9,662 in San Francisco.

In 1937, the Commission turned to New York City coin dealer, Stack’s, to handle the sales and distributions of the coins. Stack’s distributed the 3-coin set in a small black leatherette wooden box with their name in gold on the box at the price of $6.75. There were 5,505 coins struck in Philadelphia and Denver that year and 5.506 coins struck in San Francisco.

In 1938 and 1939, Stack’s still distributed the 3-coin sets but in plain wooden boxes. The 1938 mintages dropped to 3,156 each for Philadelphia and San Francisco and 3,155 coins for Denver and in 1939 2,104 coins were each struck in Philadelphia and Denver and 2,105 in San Francisco.

Of the 500,000 coins authorized, only 85,302 were struck and distributed on behalf of the Commission.

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