Old commemeratives,

smprfi

Were they minted for circulation (to spend) like other coins or did people just use them because time were tough?

agentjim007

Most were made to commemorate and were sold at a premium. Atleast in the case of the 1892/93 Columbian expo's the remainder were released into circulation

MastaHanky

I've read that the ones that were not sold were put into circulation by the mint. I'm sure a few other ones were spent when the great depression hit.

Veep

Some unsold commemoratives were put into circulation. That is certainly true of the Columbians. Some, like Iowa, went into vaults and have been sold off on occasion. Many, many more unsold coins were melted, for example: 1920 Pilgrim 48,000-- 1921 Pilgrim 80,000--Stone Mountain 1,000,000 (No, that's not a typo!) Sesquicentennial 859,408 and on and on...