Honoring Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver
The George Washington Carver National Monument Foundation, following the success of the Booker T. Washington commemorative half dollar, sought a coin honoring both Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver. Booker T. Washington founded Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in Alabama to provide African Americans with vocational training and educational opportunities. George Washington Carver worked closely with Booker T. Washington and promoted crop rotation and alternative crops, such as peanuts and sweet potatoes, to help improve farming practices and reduce soil depletion caused by continuous cotton cultivation.
Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver are both buried at the Tuskegee University Campus Cemetery. Washington died in 1915, and Carver died in 1943. The funds from the coin were broadly intended for educational and memorial purposes. Proceeds from the coin were also to be decided by the Booker T. Washington Birthplace Memorial and the George Washington Carver National Monument Foundation to “oppose the spread of communism among Negroes in the interest of the national defense.” Struck during the Red Scare, an era of intense anti-communist sentiment in the United States, the coin was intended to affirm American values and patriotism.
On September 21, 1951, the legislation passed both houses of Congress and was signed into law by President Truman. The bill authorized a maximum mintage of 3,415,631 coins. The coin was the last commemorative coin made by the United States Mint until the modern Commemorative Coin Program began in 1982.
Design Details
This silver half dollar was designed by Isaac Scott Hathaway. The obverse of the coin had its conjoined busts facing right. There are two concentric circles of text around the busts. The inner-circle states “GEORGE W. CARVER – LIBERTY – BOOKER T. WASHINGTON – HALF DOLLAR.” The outer ring states “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA – E PLURIBUS UNUM – IN GOD WE TRUST.”
The reverse design has an outline of the continental United States with “U. S. A. “superimposed across the country. Around the periphery is “FREEDOM AND OPPORTUNITY FOR ALL – AMERICANISM.”
Mintage and Distribution
While the series was struck for four years (1951 through 1954), the coins were generally sold in 3-coin P-D-S sets. The 1951-P, 1952-P, 1953-S, and 1954-S coins were struck in sufficient quantities for single-coin sales. The sets were popular and started at $9 each, and the price was eventually raised to $12 each.
But by now, having started in 1892, public demand for yet another commemorative half dollar had waned. The coins sold slowly, and those held by several banks were sold to speculators at near face value.
The coins sold as singles were usually delivered in preprinted paper holders.
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