Attractive silver 1/2 Dollar 1893 Columbian Expo KM# 117 • 12,5 g., 0.900 Silver Comments This coin was produced for the World's Columbian Exposition that took place between the 1st of May to October 30, 1893, in Chicago, Illinois, which celebrated the 400th anniversary of the arrival of Columbus to America. According to Tom DeLorey Coinage, May 2016, p. 9, the Columbian Exposition half-dollar "came about when the organization putting on the World’s Fair requested a grant from the U.S. Treasury of $5 million to help build the fairgrounds so it could open." The Treasury, however, gave "only $2.5 million due to the prevailing hard economic times." DeLorey goes on to say that someone "connected with the Fair Authority got the brilliant idea that if the Treasury would provide the $2.5 million in the form of five million commemorative half dollars," then the Fair would need only "to sell the coins for a dollar each" in order to obtain the extra $2.5 million dollars needed. Because of hard economic times, however, "only a few hundred thousand were sold at the premium, the rest were either released into circulation at face value or melted." Please have a look at our other Catawiki auction lots for more coin collections. and/or add us to your favourites to find our future auction lots easily. Bid with confidence. AG-Worldcoins, over 7000 lots sold on Catawiki. High feedback score. Please evaluate this lot with reference to the images provided. Will be sent via registered mail. I charge only 1x shipping costs when you buy multiple lots in the same auction. You are welcome to bid on my other items: https://veiling.catawiki.nl/aanbod/hamaca Extra info: The United States of America as politically organized, under the Articles of Confederation consisted of the 13 original British-American colonies; New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Maryland. Clustered along the eastern seaboard of North America between the forests of Maine and the marshes of Georgia. Under the Article of Confederation, the United States had no national capital: Philadelphia, where the “United States in Congress Assembled”, was the “seat of government”. The population during this political phase of America’s history (1781-1789) was about 3 million, most of whom lived on self-sufficient family farms. Fishing, lumbering and the production of grains for export were major economic endeavors. Rapid strides were also being made in industry and manufacturing by 1775, the (then) colonies were accounting for one-seventh of the world’s production of raw iron. On the basis of the voyage of John Cabot to the North American mainland in 1497, England claimed the entire continent. The first permanent English settlement was established at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. France and Spain also claimed extensive territory in North America. At the end of the French and Indian Wars (1763), England acquired all of the territory east of the Mississippi River, including East and West Florida. From 1776 to 1781, the States were governed by the Continental Congress. From 1781 to 1789, they were organized under the Articles of Confederation, during which period the individual States had the right to issue money. Independence from Great Britain was attained with the American Revolution in 1776. The Constitution organized and governs the present United States. It was ratified on Nov. 21, 1788. gold silver coins rare scarce coin watch rolex indians cowboys eagles colonial colony