Panama–Pacific commemorative coins

The half dollar and quarter eagle were designed by Chief Engraver Charles E. Barber, possibly with the participation of his longtime assistant, George T. Morgan.

[5] About 19,000,000 people attended, and the exposition was a great success,[6] generating enough profit to build the San Francisco Civic Auditorium with about $1 million remaining.

One, sponsored by New York Senator Elihu Root, called for a commemorative quarter dollar marking a century of peace, as well as the August 1914 opening of the Panama Canal.

[14] The octagonal pieces were intended to recall the unofficial $50 coins struck during the Gold Rush[15] Martine's bill passed the Senate on August 3, having been approved by the Committee on Industrial Expositions, to which it had been referred.

[17] S. 6309 was briefly considered by the House of Representatives on January 4, 1915, and passed after Kahn successfully proposed a minor amendment to strike out the dollar sign from the phrase "silver coins of the denomination of $50 cents each".

[17][18] The Senate concurred in the House amendments two days later, passing the bill without question, change, or opposition,[19] and President Woodrow Wilson signed it into law on January 16.

[20] Once Kahn's bill was introduced in the House, Mint Director George E. Roberts began to make informal arrangements to prepare for the commemorative issue.

Among those recommended were Adolph A. Weinman (who would design the Mercury dime and Walking Liberty half dollar in 1916), and Bela L. Pratt (creator of the 1908 Indian Head gold pieces).

Dewey forwarded them to McAdoo, who solicited advice from the Commission of Fine Arts (which liked them), his Assistant Secretary, William Malburn (who did not), and Chief Engraver Charles E. Barber and others at the Philadelphia Mint (who offered suggestions).

According to a letter several months later from Dewey, she fell ill there and was unable to participate further; numismatic historian Roger Burdette finds the explanation odd and suggests that there may have been some other reason.

[27] Tom La Marre, in his 1987 article on the Panama–Pacific issue, pointed out that miners regarded the Golden Gate as a sign of good luck, and suggested it might have been better to depict it on a gold coin.

[28][29] The cornucopia, according to Burdette, demonstrates the advancement in trade brought by the canal,[30] though the 1915 Report of the Director of the Mint states it "signif[ies] the boundless resources of the West".

The reverse depicts an eagle atop a Union shield, flanked by branches of olive, symbolizing peace, something Swiatek and Breen found ironic given the coin's issuance during World War I, and oak, the latter a choice which they were at a loss to explain.

[32] Burdette notes that Barber's original design flanked the shield with two dolphins, representing the two oceans joined by the canal, instead of branches, and speculates, "McAdoo either did not understand the allegory, did not care for it, or simply did not like aquatic mammals on coins".

[30] Art historian Cornelius Vermeule deemed the obverse of the half dollar "a halfway point between the designs on French silver pieces early in the new century and A.

[38] Swiatek and Breen suggested that the caduceus (in modern usage a symbol of medicine) is "said to represent the medical breakthroughs of Col. William C. Gorgas's successful campaign" to control malaria and yellow fever at the canal site.

[39] They wrote that on the reverse, the "defiant eagle probably alludes to the necessity of keeping the Canal open during World War I; the whole composition is meant to suggest a Roman legionary standard, which was a pole surmounted by some such device".

[39] The obverse of the quarter eagle, Vermeule opined, derived from coins of ancient Greece depicting a "Nereid, perhaps Thetis, who bears the shield of Achilles astride a hippocamp".

[40] He suggested that the quarter eagle obverse "may be Barber's answer to Theodore Roosevelt's and Augustus Saint-Gaudens' clamor for modern coins in the Greek manner".

"[41] Charles Keck's obverse for the dollar was one of the alternative designs submitted to McAdoo, depicting the unadorned, capped head of a Panama Canal construction worker[42]—Keck's original concept had featured Poseidon, god of the sea in Greek mythology.

Keck's reverse contains the words "Panama–Pacific Exposition", "San Francisco", the denomination of the coin, and two dolphins, symbolizing the joining of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans by the canal.

"[41] Numismatist Arlie Slabaugh, in his volume on commemoratives, noted that the Panama–Pacific dollar "presents a bold American design, completely different from the classical styles used on the other denominations".

Moreover, she features prominently on the seal of the State of California ... the use of the dolphins on the octagonal coin do much to add to its charm, as well as express the uninterrupted water route made possible by the canal.

[45] The goddess wears a crested helmet, as her Greek equivalent, Pallas Athena, was commonly depicted on ancient coins; it is pushed back to signify her peaceful intentions.

[49] The design for the $50 received contemporary criticism; some suggested that the presence of the dolphins on the octagonal coin implied that the canal had been constructed for cetacean convenience.

Although the authorizing statute required that the coins be struck in San Francisco, all coinage dies at that time were produced by Barber and his assistants in Philadelphia.

[60] The facilities at the San Francisco Mint were inadequate to strike such large coins as the $50 pieces, and a hydraulic medal press was shipped from Philadelphia.

The full legal allocation for each denomination had been struck, but though Zerbe continued selling coins by mail after the fair closed on December 4, 1915, sales dropped through 1916.

[63] The Mint struck 1,500 of each of the two $50 pieces, plus nine extra of the octagonal and ten of the round, to be sent to Philadelphia to await the 1916 meeting of the annual Assay Commission, when they would be available for inspection and testing.

Copper display frames with two of each coin were said by Slabaugh to have cost $400,[49] but Swiatek, in his 2011 book on commemoratives, indicates that these sets may actually have been given to dignitaries, as no sales receipts or correspondence relating to them are known.