Oregon Trail Memorial Half Dollar - Reissue

Reissue

In the years following Meeker's death, the Association continued its efforts to sell the 1926-dated half dollars. It was able to persuade President Hoover to proclaim the Covered Wagon Centennial in 1930, the hundredth anniversary both of Meeker's birth and of the first wagon train leaving St. Louis for the Oregon country. One means of selling coins the Association devised was a campus-wide drive at Yale University, alma mater of Lorne W. Buckley (executive director of the Association), in October 1930 to raise money for Trail markers. More than 600 coins were sold.

All 1928 Oregon Trail Memorial half dollars remained in the hands of the Treasury in the years after their striking, causing interest in the coin collecting community—several letters to the editor appeared in The Numismatist, enquiring as to the coins' fate. Early in 1933, the Treasury melted 17,000 of the 1926-S pieces. This allowed the 1928 coins to be sold, and the Association found itself with a small quantity of the 1926 pieces, several thousand of the 1926-S, and the entire mintage from 1928 to sell. However, the Association was not able to sell many of the 1928 pieces. The Association marketed the 1928 coins as the "Jedediah Smith Issue".

The Association turned to the Scott Stamp and Coin Company of New York. Scott was able to sell some of the 1928 half dollars. Scott's representative, Wayte Raymond, proposed melting all but 6,000 of the 1928 coins in order to create an artificial scarcity, and this was done. According to Bowers, the company "desired to capitalize on the gullibility of collectors and their need to complete sets by having more varieties coined. Scott figured that if additional Oregon Trail half dollars could be minted with the date 1933 they could be sold effectively at the Century of Progress Exposition held that year in Chicago." Swiatek and Breen noted, "through God only knows what manner of political manipulation, the Oregon Trail Memorial Association managed to obtain approval of a new 1933 Denver issue" for sale at the exposition. The 1933-D coins were the first commemorative coins ever struck at the Denver Mint. A total of 5,250 of the 1933-D were struck, of which approximately five were reserved for the Assay Commission and 242 were eventually returned for melting. Bowers believes that the returned pieces were likely defective, rather than unsold. The Association dubbed the 1933-D the "Century of Progress Exposition Issue"; both the 1928 and the 1933-D half dollars were sold for $2 each. However, the 1928 could be obtained for $1.75 by anyone who had recently bought two or more of the 1926 issues, and could be purchased for as low as $1.10 each by purchasing 10 of the 1926-dated coins. With the relative success of the 1933-D issue, the Association ordered 7,000 more in 1934, also struck at Denver. These were dubbed the "Fort Hall, Fort Laramie and Jason Lee Issue" and were also sold by Scott, for $2. In a 1937 monograph quoted by Bowers, early coin dealer B. Max Mehl speculated that it took Scott two years to dispose of the 1934-D pieces, as no further Oregon Trail commemoratives were struck until 1936.