page_title: Lexington–Concord Sesquicentennial half dollar
section_title: Production, distribution, and collecting
hierarchical_section_title: Lexington–Concord Sesquicentennial half dollar / Production, distribution, and collecting
caption_attribution_description: English: Old Belfry, Lexington Massachusetts
context_page_description: The Lexington–Concord Sesquicentennial half dollar, sometimes the Lexington–Concord half dollar or Patriot half dollar, is a commemorative fifty-cent piece struck by the United States Bureau of the Mint in 1925 in honor of the 150th anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, which began the American Revolutionary War. It was designed by Chester Beach.
  Members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation introduced legislation in 1924 which would provide for a commemorative half dollar for the anniversary. The bill passed both houses of Congress and was signed by President Calvin Coolidge. Beach had to satisfy committees from both Lexington and Concord, and the Commission of Fine Arts passed the design only reluctantly, feeling Beach had been given poor materials to work with.
  The coins were sold for $1 at the anniversary celebrations in Lexington and in Concord; they were also sold at banks across New England. Although just over half of the authorized mintage of 300,000 was struck, almost all the coins that were minted were sold. Depending on condition, they are catalogued in the hundreds of dollars.
context_section_description: A total of 162,099 Lexington–Concord Sesquicentennial half dollars were struck at the Philadelphia Mint in April and May 1925, with 99 pieces set aside for inspection and testing by the 1926 Assay Commission. The coins were made from blanks, or planchets, that had been intended for mintage into 1924 Stone Mountain Memorial half dollars, but had not been used.
  The first coin struck was presented to President Coolidge. The half dollars were sold at the anniversary celebrations in Lexington and at those in Concord, both held April 18–20, 1925, with 39,000 sold in Lexington and 21,000 in Concord. Distribution was handled by the Lexington Trust Company and the Concord National Bank, which sold them in wooden boxes decorated with images of the statue and belfry. They were sold by banks throughout New England, and to some extent elsewhere in the country. Only 86 coins were returned to the Mint, likely representing damaged pieces. Most were sold to the general public, not to collectors. The asking price was $1. The edition of R.S. Yeoman's A Guide Book of United States Coins published in 2018 lists the half dollar at between $75 and $700 depending on condition. An exceptional specimen sold at auction in 2014 for $11,880.
caption: The Old Belfry, Lexington
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon PowerShot A720 IS", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2010:01:19 11:20:57", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "2260", "Image Padding": "[]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "180", "Thumbnail YResolution": "180", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "7674", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "3714", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/500", "EXIF FNumber": "4", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "80", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2010:01:19 11:20:57", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2010:01:19 11:20:57", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "3", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "287/32", "EXIF ApertureValue": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "95/32", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "29/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2048", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1536", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "2048", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "1536", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "7510", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "81920/9", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "1536000/169", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Landscape", "EXIF Padding": "[]", "EXIF OffsetSchema": "4148"}