Celebrating 300 Years of Providence, Rhode Island
In 1936, Providence, Rhode Island, officially celebrated the tricentennial of Roger Williams’s 1636 landing. Williams had challenged Puritan leaders who enforced religious conformity, and after his expulsion from Massachusetts, he founded Providence Plantations, the settlement that would grow into Rhode Island. The colony’s charter became the first in the Western world to guarantee full religious freedom, and Williams’s views on religious tolerance and civil government later helped shape principles expressed in the First Amendment.
Rhode Island’s congressional delegation proposed a 1936 Providence, Rhode Island Tercentenary Half Dollar to honor the establishment of Roger Williams’s refuge and to help fund the celebration. The bill authorized the issuance of up to 50,000 half-dollar coins. The coins were minted at the Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco Mints.
Congress passed the measure, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed it into law. The half dollar specifically honors both Providence and the state of Rhode Island. The Rhode Island Tercentenary Committee oversaw the celebration and handled the distribution of coins.
With distribution plans in place, organizers turned to the coin’s design. Two Rhode Island artists began preliminary sketches, but organizers later opened the design to statewide competition. Ultimately, those same artists, John Howard Benson and Arthur Graham Carey, won the competition and completed the final models.
Design Details
The obverse depicts Roger Williams in a canoe, landing on shore and being greeted by a Narragansett tribesman who is standing at Slate Rock. The Narragansett Indians and Roger Williams seem to be greeting each other peacefully. Behind him is a corn stalk, a reference to Native agricultural support. The sun is rising over the ocean in the background, symbolizing a new beginning. The periphery of the coin has “IN GOD WE TRUST – RHODE ISLAND – 1636 – 1936.” The word “LIBERTY” is just above the two main characters.
The reverse’s central image is the Anchor of Hope, taken from the Rhode Island state seal, and the word “HOPE” is above the anchor. “E PLURIBUS UNUM” is below the anchor with “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA – HALF DOLLAR” around the periphery of the reverse of the coin.
The Philadelphia Mint struck 20,000 of the authorized 50,000 coins and sent them to Providence in time for the celebrations.
Sale & Distribution
As prices rose, a larger and larger supply of coins became available to the public. By April 1936, just a month after the coins initially arrived in Rhode Island, coin dealer Horace Grant was offering them for sale at $7.50 per set of three or $2.75 per coin. By June of 1936, Grant was offering the 3-coin set for $9.00, and prices continued to increase, as did complaints from collectors about the mismanagement of the coins.
In total, 20,013 Philadelphia coins were sold and distributed statewide. 15,010 from Denver and 15,011 from San Francisco were sold and distributed across the state. Expand your collection today and shop our assortment of classic U.S. silver commemorative coins.
