Alabama Congressman Lilius Bratton Rainey introduced legislation for a commemorative coin at the request of the state's centennial commission.

The half dollars were not issued until October 1921, apparently because the initial decision to depict President Wilson, a Democrat, on the coin might be reversed depending on the results of the 1920 presidential election.

[a] To boost sales, a symbol, 2X2 (recognizing Alabama as the 22nd state) was included in the design for a minority of the coins; these are generally more expensive today.

Numismatists Anthony Swiatek and Walter Breen later speculated that the members heard of other states which had received or which sought a commemorative coin, and, out of local pride, wanted the same for Alabama.

[2] Commission members persuaded local congressman Lilius Bratton Rainey to push for passage of a bill authorizing a coin.

[1] In 1920, commemorative coins were not sold by the government—Congress, in authorizing legislation, usually designated an organization which had the exclusive right to purchase them at face value and vend them to the public at a premium.

That committee held hearings on the bill on March 26, 1920, as well as on the coinage proposal that would become the Pilgrim Tercentenary half dollar, with the Alabama coin the first order of business.

The committee voted to recommend Rainey's bill, with an amendment to provide for half dollars instead of quarters, and then proceeded to consider the Pilgrim proposal.

[4] Alabama Governor Thomas Kilby had a three-member commission headed by Marie Bankhead Owen decide what design the state should recommend for the coins, and it solicited proposals from the public, but rejected all submissions.

Kilby sent the proposal, which included rough sketches, to the Director of the Mint, Raymond T. Baker, who forwarded it to the Commission of Fine Arts for its opinion.

Its sculptor-member, James Earle Fraser, designer of the Buffalo nickel, disliked the capitol as a subject, feeling that buildings never translated well to coins.

[15] She shipped her completed work to the Commission of Fine Arts on September 22, 1921, and gained members' approval; the models were then sent to the Philadelphia Mint for use in making coinage dies.

[18][19] Anthony Swiatek, in his volume on commemoratives, averred that the issuance was not controversial at the time, as the Act of May 16, 1866, that forbids the depiction of living people on currency was deemed to refer to paper money only,[20] but Q. David Bowers wrote that the portrayal caused contemporary comment, for the position of the federal government (excepting some paper money issues of the 19th century) was that living people should not appear on U.S.

[21] A total of 22 stars flank the busts, symbolic of Alabama being the 22nd state; a message reinforced on those pieces bearing the inscription 2X2 in the obverse field.

[18] The eagle's beak holds an end of a ribbon on which is inscribed the Alabama state motto, "HERE WE REST" about which Swiatek and Breen, in their 1988 book jibed, "no pun intended about the sleepy Deep South".

Vermeule concluded that "vigorous lettering has saved uninteresting portraits from weakening the reverse[c] and the defiant eagle of the obverse is handled in a spirit worthy of Saint-Gaudens.

[26] Although the 2X2 coins are only a tenth of the total mintage, they are considerably more common than that, as people were aware of their scarcity, with more saved and fewer spent in hard times.

[27] According to the deluxe edition of R. S. Yeoman's A Guide Book of United States Coins published in 2015, the Alabama half lists for between $85 and $650 without 2X2 and between $170 and $850 with, dependent on condition.