Interesting information on the 1924 Huguenot-Walloon Half dollar commemorative
Longacre
Posts: 16,717 ✭✭✭
The QDB commemorative book is great. There is a ton of numismatic tidbits that I had never heard before. Regarding the 1924 Huguenot-Walloon half dollar (which commemorated the early settlement of New York), QDB makes the following comments:
--The Huguenot-Walloon New Netherland Commission, which was associated wtih the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America were the recipients of funds from the coins. Opponents pointed out that the government was issuing coins to raise funds for a church group and that was in violation of the first amendment of the Constitution (separation of church and state), and therefore unconstitutional.
--George T. Morgan used designed suggested by Dr. John Baer Stoudt and produced dies showing the obverse portraits representing Admiral Gaspard de Coligny (who happened to die 52 years before the settlement that the coin commemorated), and William the Silent (who had been dead for a long while by the time of the 1624 settlement!).
--Stuart Mosher, in this "United States Commemorative Coins" book, stated that the coin was a shameful abuse of the coinage system. Also, according to one critic in referring to the portaits of Coligny and William the Silent, "both of these men had absolutely nothing to do with the founding of New Netherland, as they had been assasinated several decades before there was a thought of the Dutch West India Company, and of its colony of New Netherland.
How about that for a commemorative issue!
PS. QDB also notes that the name of the famous NY coin dealer, "New Netherlands Coin Company", was technically incorrect and should have been New Netherland (without the "s"). That QDB is a stickler for the details.
--The Huguenot-Walloon New Netherland Commission, which was associated wtih the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America were the recipients of funds from the coins. Opponents pointed out that the government was issuing coins to raise funds for a church group and that was in violation of the first amendment of the Constitution (separation of church and state), and therefore unconstitutional.
--George T. Morgan used designed suggested by Dr. John Baer Stoudt and produced dies showing the obverse portraits representing Admiral Gaspard de Coligny (who happened to die 52 years before the settlement that the coin commemorated), and William the Silent (who had been dead for a long while by the time of the 1624 settlement!).
--Stuart Mosher, in this "United States Commemorative Coins" book, stated that the coin was a shameful abuse of the coinage system. Also, according to one critic in referring to the portaits of Coligny and William the Silent, "both of these men had absolutely nothing to do with the founding of New Netherland, as they had been assasinated several decades before there was a thought of the Dutch West India Company, and of its colony of New Netherland.
How about that for a commemorative issue!
PS. QDB also notes that the name of the famous NY coin dealer, "New Netherlands Coin Company", was technically incorrect and should have been New Netherland (without the "s"). That QDB is a stickler for the details.
Always took candy from strangers
Didn't wanna get me no trade
Never want to be like papa
Working for the boss every night and day
--"Happy", by the Rolling Stones (1972)
Didn't wanna get me no trade
Never want to be like papa
Working for the boss every night and day
--"Happy", by the Rolling Stones (1972)
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