Texas Centennial – 1934 – 1938

Texas’ Centennial of Mexican Independence

Texas won a hard-fought independence from Mexico in 1836. She had previously been ruled by Spain, then France and finally Mexico. Now Texas was an independent country on its own. But the citizens overwhelmingly wanted to join the United States and become a state and it did in 1836. During the Civil War, Texas seceded from the Union in 1861 and became part of the Confederate States of America. After the War, Texas rejoined the Union and in 1933, local officials were making plans for the Texas Centennial to occur in 1936.

Celebrations were planned in Dallas and across the Lone Star State. To defray the costs of these celebrations, Texas legislators lobbied for a commemorative half-dollar coin that they could sell at a profit. President Franklin Roosevelt signed the bill into law in late 1933 authorizing up to 1.5 million commemorative coins and the first coins were struck in 1934. The idea was to start selling coins in 1934 and sell them at least through 1936, the Centennial Year. The American Legion Texas Centennial Committee, located in Austin, would be the official distributor of the coins. Now they needed someone to design the coins.

The job of designing the coins fell to Pompeo Coppini. He was an Italian immigrant who came to America in 1896. Coppini became an American citizen in 1902 and he sculpted in New York City and later he moved to Texas to work with another sculptor. Coppini loved Texas and adopted it as his home. Many of his most famous works are scattered across the state.

Coppini became very well-known for his sculpting Texas frontier heroes and he wanted to design a coin that would be uniquely Texan. The obverse of his commemorative is dominated by a large eagle, facing left. Behind the eagle is a five-pointed star. Around the upper periphery is “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA” and around the bottom periphery is “HALF DOLLAR” and above that is the date “1934.” “The mottoes “IN GOD WE TRUST” are to the right and “E PLURIBUS UNUM” is to the left.

The reverse is one of the ‘fullest’ designs in Classic Commemorative Coin history. Coppini used a full figure, a kneeling winged angel. The angel wings are outspread. Behind the angel is the Alamo and above the angel’s outstretched wings you can see the “Six Flags over Texas” – a flag of each country that ruled over Texas, the word “LIBERTY” on a banner in front of the flags, and a portrait of General Sam Houston and one of Stephen Austin in ovals below the wings. Around the periphery are the words “THE TEXAS INDEPENDENCE CENTENNIAL “ and “REMEMBER THE ALAMO” AND THE DATES “1836-1936”. 

The coin was first struck in Philadelphia in 1934, then at all three mints – Philadelphia, Denver and San Francisco from 1935 through 1938. Approximately 148,000 Texas Centennial coins were minted out of the 1.5 million coins authorized.

The coin’s design is either considered beautiful or busy depending on your point of view of Texas history.

Expand your collection today and shop for a 1934-1938 Texas Independence Centennial Half Dollar BU.