Bridgeport (CT) Centennial – 1936

Learn About the 1936 Bridgeport Connecticut Centennial

The Centennial of the Incorporation of the City of Bridgeport (CT) was going to occur in 1936. The citizens of Bridgeport wanted a commemorative coin to help defray the Centennial Celebration costs. In March of 1936, a bill authorizing a Bridgeport Commemorative Half Dollar was put before Congress. The original bill authorized only 10,000 coins to be struck, but it was amended to a minimum of 25,000 coins. It was the coins with very low mintages that were causing prices to jump rapidly in the marketplace. The bill, which was amended several times, passed both Houses and was signed into law by President Franklin Roosevelt.

The Bridgeport Centennial Committee was formed to lobby for a commemorative Half Dollar and they hired Connecticut sculptor and artist, Henry Kreis, to design the coin. Kreis had experience designing coins, as he had previously designed the 1935 Connecticut Tercentenary Half Dollar the year before. Kreis had achieved critical acclaim for his Connecticut designs so the people of Bridgeport were pleased to have him.

Kreis was instructed to put P. T. Barnum, one of Bridgeport’s most famous citizens and a former mayor of the city, on the obverse of the coin and an eagle motif on the reverse. Kreis followed those instructions to the letter.  The obverse of the coin had Barnum, in profile, facing left. Beneath his portrait was his name “P. T. Barnum” and around the entire obverse periphery were “BRIDGEPORT * CONNECTICUT * CENTENNIAL * 1836 – 1936.”

The reverse has a very stylized eagle that reminds some people of a shark with its mouth open waiting for its prey. The eagle faces to the right and in small types near its legs are “IN GOD WE TRUST”, “E PLURIBUS UNUM” and “LIBERTY.” Around the periphery are the obligatory “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA” and the denomination “HALF DOLLAR.”

The designs were approved but the critique of Kreis’ design is that while the portrait of Barnum does resemble him, Kreis’ talent was wasted on it. The eagle drew much critical acclaim from artists and art scholars but bewildered the public as to whether they were looking at an Art Deco-style eagle of a shark!

In September 1936, the Philadelphia Mint struck 25,015, with 15 of those coins reserved for the annual assay. They were offered to the public at $2 each through local banks in Bridgeport. Orders from across the country were handled by the First National Bank of Bridgeport. The coins were sold in 1 and 3-coin blue boxes, even though the coins all came from only one mint.

Coins stored in these boxes for any length of time do have a spotted yellow-brown original toning that develops in the holder. If the coins are brilliant in these holders, you know that they have not been in these holders for a very long time period.

This coin was available in significant quantities throughout the 1950s. One dealer had amassed more than 1,000 specimens. Other dealers had accumulated these coins by the roll. Today it is still a plentiful coin in all grades up to Gem Uncirculated.

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