The Boone Commemorative was minted from 1934-1938 and issued in PDS sets.  They commemorate the 200th anniversary of his birth and depict him on the obverse of the coin.  The reverse shows Boone conferring with Chief Black Fish.  Some of these sets are very rare, in some cases only 2,100 sets were minted.  How many investment quality sets could remain today?

 

In 1892 our mint started a "Limited edition" series of gold and silver coins which commemorated various events and individuals of importance to our nation.  The first coin struck was the Colombian Exposition half dollar of 1892.  Another interesting fact is that the only United States coin to ever honor a foreign monarch was the only commemorative quarter struck; the 1893 Isabella Quarter.  Commemorative coinage ended with the Washington-Carver Issue in 1954, although the resurrection of the commemorative coin occurred in 1982 with the introduction of the George Washington commemorative.  The most recent commemorative coins were sold to benefit the Olympics.

 

We feel very strongly about the potential of commemoratives.  They have a high collector-investor demand, low unit cost and a low mintage considering its rarity to comparable issues.  In fact, the widely touted silver dollars do not come near the rarity of the commemorative halves.  Silver dollars of common date sell over the $500 mark, yet low unit cost commemoratives ranging in price from $250 to $1,000 are five times as rare.

 

This historical series has but one silver dollar, the rare Lafayette Dollar of 1900 as well as one rare commemorative quarter dollar, the Isabella of 1893.

 

The mint also struck 13 gold commemorative coins in denominations of $1, $2.50, and $50 (slugs).

 

Many of these coins were inspired by military battles, famous explorers, Presidents and Centennial Celebrations of different states.  Since we have been recommending these coins, we have receive a positive reaction to this series.  Most people can readily identify with this unique part of our US coinage.