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5, Silver Commemorative Silver Half Dollars, they are:
* 1892, Columbian Exposition with Fine features.
Wiki
The Columbian half dollar is a coin issued by the Bureau of the Mint in 1892 and 1893. The first traditional United States commemorative coin, it was issued both to raise funds for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition and to mark the quadricentennial of the first voyage to the Americas of Christopher Columbus, whose portrait it bears. The Columbian half dollar was the first American coin to depict a historical person.
The coin stems from the desire of the Columbian Exposition's organizers to gain federal money to complete construction of the fair. Congress granted an appropriation, and allowed it to be in the form of commemorative half dollars, which legislators and organizers believed could be sold at a premium. Fair official James Ellsworth wanted the new coin to be based on a 16th-century painting he owned by Lorenzo Lotto, reputedly of Columbus, and pushed for this through the design process. When initial sketches by Mint Chief Engraver Charles E. Barber proved unsatisfactory, fair organizers turned to a design by artist Olin Levi Warner, which after modification by Barber and his assistant, George T. Morgan, was struck by the Mint.
Some 5,000,000 half dollars were struck, far beyond the actual demand, and half of them were melted. The appropriation did not cure the fair's financial woes, as fewer than 400,000 were sold at the premium price, and some 2,000,000 were released into circulation, where they remained as late as the 1950s.
* 1923 Monroe Doctrine is with Fine features.
The Monroe Doctrine Centennial half dollar was a fifty-cent piece struck by the United States Bureau of the Mint. Bearing portraits of former U.S. Presidents James Monroe and John Quincy Adams, the coin was issued in commemoration of the centennial of the Monroe Doctrine and was produced at the San Francisco Mint in 1923. Sculptor Chester Beach is credited with the design, although the reverse closely resembles an earlier work by Raphael Beck.
In 1922, the motion picture industry was faced with a number of scandals, including manslaughter charges against star Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. Although Arbuckle was eventually acquitted, motion picture executives sought ways of getting good publicity for Hollywood. One means was an exposition, to be held in Los Angeles in mid-1923. To induce Congress to issue a commemorative coin as a fundraiser for the fair, organizers associated the exposition with the 100th anniversary of the Monroe Doctrine, and legislation for a commemorative half dollar for the centennial was passed.
The exposition was a financial failure. The coins did not sell well, and the bulk of the mintage of over 270,000 was released into circulation. Beach faced accusations of plagiarism because of the similarity of the reverse design to a work by Beck, though he and fellow sculptor James Earle Fraser denied any impropriety. Many of the pieces that had been sold at a premium and saved were spent during the Depression; most surviving coins show evidence of wear.
* 1925 Stone Mountain with Very Fine features.
Per PCGS:
At 1,314,709 distributed coins, the Stone Mountain half dollar has the second highest mintage of any commemorative of the 1892-1954 classic era (only the 1893 Columbian is higher). The issue was heavily promoted by the Stone Mountain Confederate Monumental Association though various marketing schemes. The original issue price was $1 per coin.
Some Stone Mountain Half Dollars bear counterstamps with state abbreviations, numbers, and/or the letters G.L. and S.L. (for example AR 18 SL). According to Steve Deitert, ". . .every town with a coin quota was designated as a 'unit.' Each unit was entitled to 'at least one coin showing on the face the State initials and a serial number.' (Likewise, special coins could be set aside and numbered for a 'Civic or Patriotic body.') The numbered coins were distributed to the unit chairmen by the Stone Mountain Monumental Association through the governor of each state. Under the governor's direction, 'an alphabetically arranged list of all Units in the State shall be prepared and at some prearranged time and place a drawing for the purpose of determining the place, to which the numbered coins are to be sent shall be held. The coins are to be placed in a receptacle and drawn by a disinterested person, the first coin drawn going to the first Unit town on the list, the second to the second, etc., until all coins are drawn.' The number assigned to each municipality was just the luck of the draw. Each unit chairman then determined when and-where to auction the numbered coin(s)."[1]
The GL and SL designations stood for Gold Lavalier and Silver Lavalier, respectively. These special coins were given to young ladies who sold the most Stone Mountain Half Dollars in their county.
* 1946 Booker T. Washington with Extra Fine features.
Per PCGS:
The 1946-S Booker T Washington is a high mintage issue that's relatively common in all mint state grades. The typical specimen has frosty luster and good eye appeal. The 1946 BTW's have long been among the least expensive of all the U.S. silver commemoratives of the classic 1892-1954 era, though in the ultimate MS67 and MS68 there are issues that are even more common, namely the Norfolk and Iowa.
* 1952 Washington-Carver with Almost Uncirculated features.
Per PCGS:
From 1951 to 1954, the U.S. Mint produced the George Washington Carver, Booker T. Washington Half Dollar. It commemorated the lives of George Washington Carver (1864-1943), an agricultural scientist and educator, and Booker T. Washington (1856-1915), founder of the Tuskegee Institute. The coin was the last commemorative coin made by the Mint until the modern Commemorative Coin Program began in 1982.
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ZC1955 RM
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