page_title: Oregon Trail Memorial half dollar
section_title: Inception
hierarchical_section_title: Oregon Trail Memorial half dollar / Inception
caption_attribution_description: Ezra Meeker (right) shakes hands with President Calvin Coolidge, 1924
context_page_description: The Oregon Trail Memorial half dollar was a fifty-cent piece struck intermittently by the United States Bureau of the Mint between 1926 and 1939. The coin was designed by Laura Gardin Fraser and James Earle Fraser, and commemorates those who traveled the Oregon Trail and settled the Pacific Coast of the United States in the mid-19th century. Struck over a lengthy period in small numbers per year, the many varieties produced came to be considered a ripoff by coin collectors, and led to the end, for the time, of the commemorative coin series.
  Ohio-born Ezra Meeker had traveled the Trail with his family in 1852 and spent the final two decades of his long life before his death in 1928 publicizing the Oregon Trail, that it should not be forgotten. In 1926, at age 95, he appeared before a Senate committee, requesting that the government issue a commemorative coin that could be sold to raise money for markers to show where the Trail had been. The coin had originally been thought of by Idahoans, led by Dr. Minnie Howard, seeking to further preservation work at Fort Hall; Meeker broadened the idea.
context_section_description: The Oregon Trail Memorial half dollar stemmed from various efforts by Idahoans who favored the preservation of the site of Fort Hall, an important way station on the Trail.  The idea was sparked by the issuance of the 1925 Stone Mountain Memorial half dollar, which caused Mabel Murphy, wife of an Idaho newspaperman, to propose to her husband the striking of an Oregon Trail coin, the profits from which could be used for historic preservation. Her husband, D.T. Murphy, on April 16, 1925, dutifully published an editorial, "Oregon Trail Covered Wagon Half Dollars" in the Idaho State Journal.  Mrs. Murphy would not live to see the coin issued, dying November 30, 1925, of tuberculosis.
  The idea for the coin was brought up again when civic activists in Pocatello, Idaho, led by Dr. Minnie Howard, sought ideas for funding a monument on the site of Fort Hall.  Insurance salesman F.C. McGowan displayed a Stone Mountain piece, "Yes.  Coinage. Like this!" Howard and her colleagues pursued the idea.  Meeker did as well once he heard of it, forming the Oregon Trail Memorial Association, ("OTMA" or "the Association") a national organization, which could also receive the half dollars, and sell them at a profit.
  By 1925, Congress was reluctant to authorize more commemorative coins; twelve pieces had been issued between 1920 and 1925, and many legislators felt that coins were being allowed that "commemorate[d] events of local and not national interest". The entire mintages of commemoratives were sold at face value to the sponsoring organizations designated in the authorizing acts.  These groups then sold the coins to the public at a premium, thus raising money for causes that Congress had deemed worthy. Made cautious by a series of unsuccessful issues, Congress rejected a number of proposals for special coins in early 1926.  Among these were pieces to honor the completion of the Lincoln and Victory Highways, and a proposal to commemorate the centennial of the birth of American composer Stephen Foster.
  The bill authorizing the Oregon Trail Memorial  half dollar was first introduced in the House of Representatives on January 25, 1926, by Washington Congressman John Franklin Miller, who had previously been mayor of Seattle.  Meeker was living in Seattle while Miller was mayor, having moved from his previous home in Puyallup. According to local historian Bert Webber in his 1986 monograph on the coin, "there is little doubt that Mr. Miller was influenced to propose this coin by Ezra Meeker." A hearing was held before the House Coinage Committee on March 3; Meeker testified.  The bill was reported favorably, and then passed by the full House on April 5, 1926. The bill was not opposed in the House of Representatives, though one member, Michigan Congressman Louis Cramton, asked several questions before it passed by unanimous consent. According to an October 2013 article in The Numismatist, "Congress was no match for Meeker".
  On April 26, 1926, the 95-year-old Meeker appeared before the Senate's Committee on Banking and Currency.  Treasury Secretary Andrew W. Mellon had filed a letter opposing commemorative coin issues, except those of national importance.  Meeker, in his testimony, argued that the Trail issue would be of such importance.  The OTMA board considered whether to seek amendment of the bill to the alternative suggested by Mellon, a commemorative medal.  In part because of Howard's urging, they decided to stay with the coin.  The bill for the half dollar was reported without recommendation, but was passed by the Senate on May 10.  Meeker met with President Calvin Coolidge to ensure it would be signed, which it was on May 17, 1926, as Public Law 325, authorizing the issuance of up to 6,000,000 half dollars.  President Calvin Coolidge signed the bill on the White House lawn; Meeker was present at the signing ceremony and was photographed shaking hands with President Coolidge.
  The bill required that the Association pay for the half dollars at par, and that the dies and other costs of preparation not be at the expense of the United States. T
caption: Meeker with President Calvin Coolidge
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