Numismatikforum

An American 1933s half-dollar from the San Francisco mint, struck in .900 silver, 30.6mm in diameter and weighing 12.50g. There wasn’t much need for big coins during the Great Depression, so 1930, ‘31, and ‘32 rolled by without any new halves being coined. When half-dollar coinage resumed in ’33, only San Francisco struck any for circulation. This 1933s half-dollar belongs to that first post-crash coinage.

Nor was the coining hiatus limited to half-dollars. There were no new nickels or dimes in 1932 and ’33; no new quarters during 1931 and ’33. This year—1933— it was only 1-cent pieces in Philadelphia and Denver, and these half-dollars in San Francisco.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was sworn in as President in March 1933 and told Americans all they had “to fear was Fear itself.” To accompany his brave words, FDR began what would be his 12 years in office by initiating his alphabet of prescriptions for the broken U.S. economy: the NRA (National Recovery Administration), etc., etc.

Of special note to coin-enthusiasts was FDR’s 1933 “Bank Holiday,” the four days when U.S. banks were forced to close to review their condition, practices, and to inventory their holdings. Forgotten corners of bank vaults—some untouched for many decades—were investigated. Many, many interesting items were found, among them bags of Bust half-dollars from the 1830s and before. (As the largest American silver coins available in their day, they found considerable use as bank reserves.)

And then these 1933s halves celebrated like no other American coin in more than a dozen years. Prohibition was repealed in December ‘33, so right from the first these half-dollars were liable to have been plunked down on a bar for a glass of whiskey or 5% beer. First time—legally—since 1920.

v.

What did happen to the recovered Bust- halfs ? The idea of beeing able to obtain fresh coins wich are 100 years old is absolutly fascinating, what an eldorado for the collectors of those days it must have been.
Speaking of Eldorado... 1933 also was the year wich brought the definate end of US- goldminting and the large " manhunt for minted gold " , wich I never really understood. But it created the 1933 - Double eagle- top rarity and presumibly marked the end to many european gold coin being held by any US- bank, such as the Londen sovereign of 1917.

I'm sorry it took me so long to get back to this. It had been a long time since I read about the Bust halves being found during the Depression, so I went back and took a little tour of my bookshelf.

The large numbers of Bust halves available to collectors was noted in the 1957 Redbook:

“From 1806 until 1840 large quantities of half-dollars were coined to take the place of the silver dollars which were not made during that period. For that reason half-dollars of most dates during that span of years are fairly common.”

A fuller explanation has been an annual feature in the Redbook—this one is also from the 1957 edition, but elsewhere in the book:

“Lacking gold coins and silver dollars, the half-dollar became the desirable coin for large transactions, bank reserves, and foreign payments. Until 1830 [modified to 1834 in the 2015 edition], in fact, half-dollars circulated very little as they were mainly transferred from bank to bank. This will account for the relatively good supply of half-dollars of this period which are still available to collectors in better than average condition. A senate committee of 1830 reported the United States silver coins were considered as so much bullion and were accordingly ‘lost to the community as coins.’”

(This “bullion” problem was finally corrected in 1853 when U.S. subsidiary coinage had its silver content reduced and became a de facto token coinage like that of its British cousins.)

But Breen in his 1988 Encyclopedia was the one that had apparently stayed with me:

“Tens or hundreds of thousands of specimens 1809-1836 went directly to banks, which retained them as part of their cash reserves, long after new laws mandated smaller sizes and lower weights. These coins came to public attention about 1933-34, when Pres. Roosevelt’s bank holiday resulted in exhaustive searches of many cashiers’ vaults. Others showed up during the same period owing to bank failures; still others from hoarders’ estates. Before then, the biggest single source was probably the Economite hoard (buried by the New Harmony Society, Economy, Pa., and discovered in 1878). This contained 111,356 bust half dollars, many close to mint state but scrubbed—including 100 1815’s. For this reason many varieties of this design come mostly in VF to AU, “sliders” (slightly rubbed coins being masqueraded as ‘UNCIRCULATED’) being common.”

Nice Bust half-dollars are so relatively common that they have been widely collected by die varieties.

Finally, though, when the new supplies of these coins surfaced in the 1930s, the public was consumed with the commemorative half-dollar craze and the filling of penny boards from circulation, etc., etc. Kind of a “get-rich-quick” thing, which of course was perfectly understandable given the economic climate of the time. But there just wasn’t much money to be made in Bust halves, so they were largely ignored at the time.

Here, from a New York company’s 1934 buy/sell catalog, is the warning on page 14: “Be sure and read my list of ‘Coins We Do Not Buy.’ It may save you time and expense.”

And sure enough, there it had been, back on page 12, a list of 17 items or classes of items the company wanted no part of. Item 8 of the ‘Coins We Do Not Buy.’: U.S. Half Dollars 1818 to 1839 with busts of Liberty, except 1836 (milled edge).

They did, however, list buy prices for the Bust half-dollars of 1807-1814, but only in Uncirculated grade. Their buy prices? Between $0.75 and $0.55, depending on the date. Yikes!

--------------------------------------

I'm not a collector of gold coins and don't know much about them, but if there's a story about the 1917 London sovereign, I'd love to hear it.

v.

Hello,

thank you for your additional information about the Bust Halfes. Of course, the banks needed coins for backing up their business and without a silverdollar or enough minted gold they had no choice but stocking the halfes - and presumibly foreign coins as the spanish dollars or the french 5 francs ?

The story of the London 1917 - sovereign is rather short. When England after WW I payed her debt to the US, the payment was made using the sovereigns of 1916, 1917 and 1925, wich created numismatist rarities, as virtually all goldcoins were melted in the US in 1933. What might have been left at the Bank of Englad met the same fate when in the 1930s about 80 million sovereigns where melted down to meet the markeds demand for gold ingots.
Today the 1917 London sovereign sells at auction at the thick end of £5000 to 10.000 , while the 1925 was reminted from 1949 to 51 and is almoust regarded as buillion with only a small premium to pay.
The 1916 though is a unknown and disregarded rarity. It does not show often, but often enough to be acquiered for quit a considerable amount, as the fewest collectors seem to care about the fact that they are obtaining the first WWI sovereign wich was held back because of the war effort. In my opinion the 1916 sovereign is scarcer than the famous german 20 mark of 1915 wich sells for about 3500 euros. Once again, the ways of numismatics can be mysterious.

Thanks. I do like stories about how particular coins went here or there. There is a certain American large cent that went down to South America in very considerable numbers (I better not mention what I think is the date, because I'm not sure at the moment). But more or less at random, one I especially like is the 1831 UK penny, which was shipped in quantity to Canada.

It was kind of funny. I had seen 1831 pennies one after another, wondered why I saw so many, and then not long after read about them being imported into Canada for use there. Fun.

v.