page_title: Connecticut Tercentenary half dollar
section_title: Production, distribution, and collecting
hierarchical_section_title: Connecticut Tercentenary half dollar / Production, distribution, and collecting
caption_attribution_description: English: Connecticut charter 300th anniversary was commemorated by a 3-cent stamp on April 26, 1935. The charter was granted by Charles II and hidden from the agents of James II under this tree considered sacred by the Indians of the area.
context_page_description: The Connecticut Tercentenary half dollar, sometimes called the Connecticut half dollar, is a commemorative fifty-cent piece struck by the United States Bureau of the Mint in 1935. The coin was designed by Henry Kreis and commemorates the 300th anniversary of the founding of Connecticut. Its obverse depicts the Charter Oak, where according to legend Connecticut's charter was hidden to save it from being confiscated by the English governor-general. An eagle appears on the coin's reverse side.
  The Connecticut Tercentenary Commission wanted a half dollar issued, with proceeds from its sale to further its projects. A bill passed through Congress without dissent and became law on June 21, 1935, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed it, providing for 25,000 half dollars. Kreis's design was a Public Works Administration project and technically in violation of the new law, which said the federal government was not to pay for its design. Nevertheless, the design was approved by the Commission of Fine Arts, and then by the Treasury Department.
context_section_description: Initially only 15,000 of the authorized quantity of 25,000 were struck at the Philadelphia Mint, as this was the quantity the Tercentenary Commission at first ordered. These were struck not later than April 10, 1935, and were sent at the commission's request to the Hartford National Bank and Trust Company, distributing agent for the coin. Placed on sale on April 21, they were rapidly exhausted, and on April 25, Fisher ordered the remaining 10,000. The commission had enquired as to the possibility of having the coins struck at different mints and in proof condition, but was told that the heavy volume of work at the Mint forbade having those done. The price per coin was $1. In addition to the coins sent to Hartford, the Mint struck 18 pieces, reserved for inspection and testing at the 1936 meeting of the annual Assay Commission. The United States Post Office Department issued a three-cent stamp for the anniversary on April 26, 1935, also depicting the Charter Oak.
  Six banks in Connecticut distributed the coin through their branches, placing them in small boxes that bear the selling bank's name. Mail orders were taken through the Hartford National Bank's Main Street branch. The coins sold mostly to residents of Connecticut; the coin collecting community took only a few thousand. By July 1935, they were sold out but for a few the Tercentenary Commission was reserving for presentation to dignitaries; even those few were apparently gone by September. According to Q. David Bowers, "there was never any problem concerning profiteering, exploitation, or anything else connected with this issue". Swiatek, in his later book on commemoratives, noted, "the Connecticut Tercentenary Commission did a fantastic job in distributing a large percentage of this issue to Connecticut residents."
  The coins quickly commanded a premium after their 1935 issue, rising to $6 during the commemorative coin boom of 1936. They had subsided back to the $2.50 level by 1940, but thereafter increased steadily in value, rising to $730 during the second commemorative coin boom in 1980. The deluxe edition of R. S. Yeoman's A Guide Book of United States Coins, published in 2015, lists the coin for between $260 and $700 each depending on condition. The coin with the highest grade known sold at auction in 2002 for $9,487.
caption: The three-cent stamp issued for the Connecticut Tercentenary, displaying the Charter Oak
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