Description
1936 Elgin Commemorative Half Dollar 50c, CACG MS67 CAC
The surfaces are frosty across Rovelstad’s inimitable pioneer portrait and the (typically softly struck) reverse group. Light silver-gray interiors yield to iridescent peripheral color that is strongest with its yellows and greens. A very high end and attractive Elgin commemorative.
The Elgin half dollar was struck in 1936, one year after the Illinois city celebrated its centennial. The issue, however, had a broader theme of honoring the pioneers who settled the state (the year 1673, for instance, refers to the beginning of the Joliet-Marquette expedition on the Mississippi River), and it also has special significance to Americans of Norwegian descent, one of the largest ancestral groups in the upper Midwestern United States. The proceeds of the Elgin Commemorative sales were used to construct a Pioneer Memorial Statue in Elgin, Illinois. The amount raised through the commemorative coin sales would ultimately fall short of the funds necessary to complete the project. The statue would eventually be completed and dedicated more than six decades later in 2001. The statue and the commemorative coin were designed by Trygve Rovelstad.
