The California Diamond Jubilee half dollar was a United States commemorative silver fifty-cent piece struck at the San Francisco Mint in 1925.

The San Francisco Citizens' Committee wished to issue a commemorative coin as a fundraiser for a celebration of the statehood diamond jubilee.

Designs by sculptor Jo Mora met a hostile reception at the Commission of Fine Arts, but the Citizens' Committee would not change them, and they were approved.

Representative Johnson then offered an amendment to add a Fort Vancouver Centennial half dollar to the bill, and to Vestal's chagrin, this also was adopted.

[6] Treasury Secretary Andrew W. Mellon urged President Calvin Coolidge to veto the bill, writing: The Federal Government is permitting its coinage system to be commercialized for the profit of any celebration, whether national in its scope or not ...

Rossi enclosed sketches by California sculptor Joseph (Jo) Mora, with the promise that a finished design, and a model, would follow.

[13] Anthony Swiatek and Walter Breen, in their volume on U.S. commemorative coins, suggested that the Citizens' Committee did not hire Beach or Aitken due to lack of time and an unwillingness to pay their large fees.

[13] By this time, Fraser was no longer a member of the Commission[12] and they were sent to Lorado Taft, along with a note that the Citizens' Committee had not hired Aitken due to the expense and that the new designs were little better than the old.

[13] Numismatic historian Don Taxay averred that this advice was not followed due to the lack of an alternative position in which to place the motto.

These were sent from Philadelphia to the San Francisco Mint, where 150,000 coins were struck in August, plus 200 reserved for inspection and testing at the 1926 meeting of the United States Assay Commission.

[12] David M. Bullowa, who studied commemorative coins on behalf of the American Numismatic Association in the 1930s, regarded it as "a very virile and well executed half dollar, in which obverse and reverse are definitely related to each other".

"[17] He considered the design bold and effective, and especially admired the animal, stating that the "muscles, bones, and tufts of fur express the massive determination of the bear.

"[17] He felt the lettering particularly successful, as two different sizes are used, and although all three phrases customary on American coinage are present ("Liberty", "In God We Trust", and "E Pluribus Unum"), the "placing is so skillfully handled that it seems hard to realize all three ... inscriptions are used".

[17] The first California Diamond Jubilee half dollar struck was given to the Memorial Museum in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco.

[15] At least one half dollar must have left the San Francisco Mint by August 26, 1925, as it was shown at a meeting of the Pacific Coast Numismatic Society on that day.