Denver: 15,010 including 10 assay coins The Rhode Island Tercentenary half dollar (sometimes called the Providence, Rhode Island, Tercentenary half dollar) is a commemorative fifty-cent piece struck by the United States Bureau of the Mint in 1936.
Its obverse depicts Roger Williams, founder of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.
Colonial authorities began to take issue with some of the teachings that he imparted to his congregation, such as the separation of church and state and fair dealings when purchasing land from American Indians.
[3] Anthony Swiatek and Walter Breen claim in their volume on commemoratives that the moving forces behind the Rhode Island Tercentenary half dollar were Senators Jesse H. Metcalf and Peter Gerry and Representative John Matthew O'Connell, all of whom applied political pressure to authorize the coin.
[6][7] A bill had passed the House of Representatives on April 3, 1935 for a Hudson Sesquicentennial half dollar, and it had been recommended for passage in the Senate by the Committee on Banking and Currency.
[10] It was then returned to the House of Representatives which agreed to the Senate amendments,[11] and it was enacted on May 2 by the signature of President Franklin D.
[14] Benson told Lawrie that the committee had then changed its mind, wanting to picture Roger Williams on the obverse side being greeted by Narragansetts, and they decided to open the design to a public competition.
Lawrie forwarded the letter to Commission chairman Charles Moore the same day, noting: "I don't know just what his troubles are.
"[15] The full Commission approved the designs on December 20, and reductions were made from plaster models to coin-sized hubs were by the Medallic Art Company of New York.
[16] The obverse is based on the seal of Providence showing Roger Williams kneeling in a canoe, his hand raised in signal of friendship.
Behind the Narragansett is a stalk of corn as a reference to the help and friendship which the Indians had shown to the Mayflower Pilgrims in establishing Plymouth Colony.
The Sun is rising in the background, symbolic of Rhode Island being the first colony where religious liberty was guaranteed.
"[20] The two designers later became partners in a stonecutting firm in Newport, Rhode Island, which accounts for the sculptural look of the coin, according to Swiatek.
"[22] He notes that "the Indian and Williams are blocked out with a childlike charm of conceptualism", but "the coat-of-arms is so simple as to defy analysis, or even comment.
Low-mintage commemoratives were sometimes held back from sale by the distributor in anticipation of skyrocketing prices in those days,[3] and Grant ran an advertisement in the April 1936 issue of The Numismatist offering the coins for $7.50 per set of three by mint mark, or $2.75 individually.
Metcalf suggested another act for another 50,000 coins, but Hoffecker advised against it unless some neutral party handled the distribution, lest they be hoarded.
Hoffecker was elected president of the American Numismatic Association that same year, and he wrote to numismatist Walter P. Nichols in November expressing concerns about Grant's ethics.
"[29] By 1940, the price on the secondary market had dropped back to $4.50 per set of three, but it then rose steadily and reached $975 during the commemorative coin boom of 1980.