Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 January 1893 — THE COLUMBIAN COIN. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE COLUMBIAN COIN.

World’s Fair Half-dollar Which Sells for a Dollar. The Columbian half-dollar which the illustration below illustrates has an origin and a probable destiny that Harper’s Young People thinks will be unique. Several months ago the directors of the Columbian World’s Fair applied to Congress for the appropriation of ten millions of dollars toward the expenses of the gigantic enterprise that they had undertaken. After a long debate an adtwas passed that gave the World’s Fair five millions of dollars, and the directors

of the fair agreed to take the amount in silver half-dollars, which coin would be the price of admission to the fair. So great, however, is the interest in the event the minting of this coin commemorates, that it is probable that none of these coins will be in circulation for a long time to come, and that a great many of them will never be in circulation, as they will be held by collectors and others, who will prize them as souvenirs. The World’s Fair people are selling half-dollars at one dollar apiece; and as there are, perhaps, some millions of people who will be glad to keep the coin as a souvenir, the fair is likely to make a very considerable profit on the nation’s contribution.

COLUMBIAN HALF-DOLLAR.