Preparation
Even before the appearance of Barber's sketches, other designs were being considered for the half dollar. Artist Frank Millet proposed to the fair's Director of Decorations, Olin Warner, in early August, that Warner design the coin. Warner modeled one depicting a profile of Columbus, not based on the Lotto portrait. His reverse showed a caravel ship, symbolizing the Santa MarÃa, Columbus's flagship, above two globes representing the hemispheres, though they lacked the continental outlines. Warner's proposal was praised by artists working on their sculptures at the fairgrounds. Leech also weighed in once he returned from vacation on August 26, sending fair organizers a woodcut engraving based on the official Spanish medal for the 400th anniversary of Columbus' first voyage, and arranging with the State Department for the American Embassy in Madrid to get one. A medal was duly obtained and was subsequently placed in the Mint's collection.
The Mint was willing to defer to the Company on the design (Ellsworth withdrew his threat not to allow his painting to be used by the end of August), but the Company's Finance Committee was unable to reach a decision on what design to use. Warner returned to work on the badges to be worn by the fair's directors at the dedication ceremony in October—the fair itself would not open to the public until May 1893. These badges included a round disk with a portrait of Columbus in high relief based on the Lotto portrait, and when one was displayed it was immediately spoken of as a possible basis for the half dollar. The Company also considered a design with three ships, and another with a single ship and a depiction of the Western Hemisphere, both provided by the Mint. Contemporary accounts also mention a reverse design considered by the Company which depicted a building at the Exposition.
Tiring of the back and forth, fair leaders demanded a meeting with Mint officials to settle the matter of the design. The Company was in severe financial straits, and money from the sale of the coins was needed. Leech agreed to send Barber to Chicago, where he met with the Finance Committee on September 23, 1892. It was agreed that the obverse would be based on the badges, and the reverse on Warner's caravel concept.
The badge lacked the inscriptions required for coins; to accommodate them, Barber shrank the design, surrounding it with letters. The ship on the reverse did not have sufficient detail in Warner's version; Barber requested a photograph of the caravel to be exhibited at the fair from Ellsworth, then turned the reverse over to his assistant, George T. Morgan. The chief engraver had discerned Ellsworth's desire to have the Lotto portrait used, and several times in October wrote warmly to him, apprising him of progress. By October 17, Barber had completed test dies; by the 31st, trial strikes were made and Barber informed Ellsworth that Leech had pronounced them the best-looking coins ever struck by the Mint. The Mint Director had micromanaged the fine-tuning of the designs for the Barber coinage the previous year; this time he did not intervene, and departed on November 9 for a monetary conference in Brussels.
On November 11, Barber sent Ellsworth cardboard impressions of the latest versions of the coin; Ellsworth expressed pleasure at their appearance. The chief engraver made final adjustments directly to the master die, rather than modifying a larger model to be placed in a reducing lathe. This diework was the technique his father and predecessor as chief engraver had used; it was also the way Charles Barber preferred to work. Barber added his monogram "B" to the design; it is on the cut-off of the bust above the letter B in "Columbian", while Morgan's "M" is hidden in the rigging of the ship on the reverse.
Read more about this topic: Columbian Exposition Half Dollar
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