The committee's resolve to have no more commemorative coins—after this one—did not impress the full House, which added two more half dollars to the legislation to mark other anniversaries.

When New York issued grants for the same real estate, there was conflict between the two groups of settlers, and those deriving title from New Hampshire organized the Green Mountain Boys, a local militia.

Ethan Allen led an ill-advised raid on Montreal in 1775, was captured, and spent the remainder of the Revolutionary War a prisoner of the British.

[3] In 1777, the British general, John Burgoyne, advanced south from Canada, hoping to divide the colonies by capturing the Hudson Valley in what is called the Saratoga Campaign.

Weakened by the losses and the failure to obtain supplies, Burgoyne was defeated at the Battle of Saratoga in New York state that October, an American victory[4] that historian Edmund Morgan deemed "a great turning point of the war, because it won for Americans the foreign assistance [from France] which was the last element needed for victory".

On January 24, New Hampshire's George H. Moses, acting on Greene's behalf, moved that the Senate consider the bill, and it passed that body without opposition.

[9] After the House received the Senate-passed bill, it was referred to the Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures,[10] which held hearings on January 30, with the chairman, Indiana Representative Albert H. Vestal, presiding.

O'Reilly, who had been with the Treasury longer than the other two, addressed the committee, warning that there were six coinage bills before Congress, and that the Mint had struck nine commemoratives in the past five years.

O'Reilly had indicated that coins were being requested for local celebrations, and Fleetwood stressed the importance in American history of the events that were being commemorated.

He added that because of this, Washington Representative Albert Johnson had agreed to withdraw his bill for a commemorative honoring the centennial of Fort Vancouver, in his state.

The Minority Leader, Democratic Congressman Finis J. Garrett of Tennessee, asked why the committee had not set the rule before considering the Bennington bill, and Vestal admitted that was hard to answer.

[18] Kansas' Charles Curtis moved on behalf of Greene that the Senate agree to the House amendments,[19] and the bill, authorizing all three coins, was enacted by Coolidge's signature on February 24, 1925.

[20] Anthony Swiatek and Walter Breen, in their 1988 book on commemoratives, state that the bill would probably not have passed Congress if Coolidge had not been known to have an interest in the Bennington observances.

On July 1, 1925, Fry wrote to Charles Moore, chairman of the Commission of Fine Arts (charged by a 1921 executive order by President Warren G. Harding with rendering advisory opinions on public artworks, including coins), informing him that the models would be ready in about a week.

The Fine Arts Commission questioned the choice of Allen, did not like the lettering, objected to the misspelling of Bennington as "Bennigton", and had mistaken the monument for the one erected for the Battle of Lake Champlain, and thus felt that there was an issue regarding relevance.

On September 11, the chairman of the Sesquicentennial Commission, John Spargo, wrote to Grant, pointing out the error and strongly defending the choices of Allen and the monument.

Spargo suggested that Moore put his objections in writing and be as clear as possible to induce Fry to continue with the project, because the sculptor wanted to withdraw from it.

Despite conciliatory efforts, Fry refused to continue, and after the failure of brief negotiations with Theodore Spicer-Simson, the Vermont commission engaged Charles Keck.

On April 2, Moore wrote to Keck, advising him to get rid of both, and to put in place of the building a catamount, which would make a coin one could admire.

The commission on the 30th approved one showing a walking catamount for the reverse, and asked that the words FOUNDER OF VERMONT be removed and IRA ALLEN be substituted.

E PLURIBUS UNUM and IN GOD WE TRUST also had to be added to the reverse; Keck promised completion within several days when he wrote to Grant on May 24, with photographs to be submitted to Secretary Mellon for final approval.

[32] The Medallic Art Company of New York reduced Keck's plaster models to coin-sized hubs from which dies could be made by the Philadelphia Mint.

At other times they were tedious, or "up tight" as one might describe it nowadays, and were determined to make the design conform to their ideas regardless of what the commission sponsoring the coin wanted.

"[21] Q. David Bowers described the reverse as bearing "a large catlike animal of uncertain species, which had nothing to do with the history of Vermont being commemorated but was a rebus for the Catamount [Fay's] Tavern, a subtlety lost on just about everyone who saw it".

"[38] A total of 40,034 Vermont Sesquicentennial half dollars were struck at the Philadelphia Mint during January and February 1927, with the excess over the round number reserved for inspection and testing at the 1928 meeting of the annual Assay Commission.