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Joint Celebrations Commemorative

Coins and StampsThat signifcant events in our nations history would be

celebrated on both postage stamps and commemorativecoinage should not be surprising. What might raise aneyebrow though, is the number o times this has occurred.

By Mike Sherman

The frst commemorative issue or both a stamp andcoin was the 400th anniversary o the discovery o Amer-ica by Christopher Columbus. This event was marked bya major exposition and Worlds Fair in Chicago. Both a

commemorative quarter

(eaturing Queen Isabella)and hal dollar (with theportrait o Columbus) wereissued during 1892-93.The Post Ofce issued amajor 16-stamp series,with values ranging rom1 to the almost unheardo denomination o $5.00.In todays dollars, thatstamp would have a acevalue o roughly $120!

The Louisiana PurchaseExposition in St. Louis in1904 provided another op-portunity or both the Mintand the Bureau o Engrav-

ing and Printing to releasecommemorative issues.The gold dollar pieceseatured Thomas Jeer-son (President in 1804)and the recently martyredPresident William McKin-ley, while the fve-stampseries included portraits oRobert R. Livingston andJames Monroe in additionto Jeerson and McKinley.

The Panama-PacifcExposition o 1915, heldin San Francisco, markedboth the completion othe Panama Canal and

the 400th anniversary oBalboas discovery othe Pacifc Ocean. TheU.S. Mint pulled out allthe stops and struck a

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fve-coin set that eatured a silver hal dollar, a golddollar, a gold quarter eagle, and two $50 gold pieces.

The Post Ofce marked the event with a our-stamp set,eaturing views o the Canal, the Golden Gate Bridge, theDiscovery o San Francisco Bay and Balboa.

During the 1920s, the tercentenary o the Pilgrim andthe Huguenot landings and the sesquicentennials o boththe battle o Lexington-Concord and the signing o theDeclaration o Independence provided highly signifcantevents that were marked by joint coin and stamp issues.

Note the extremely similar themes o both the coin andstamp designs.

The mid-1930s saw a number o additional releases,most o which were centered around anniversariesmarked by individual states.

While the examples shown are the key parallel issues,there are many other events that have been captured on

both stamps and coins, though not always at the sametime. For example, in 1920, Maine celebrated its centen-nial with a commemorative coin, while the correspondingstamp issue waited or the sesquicentennial in 1970.Next time, well deal with some o these issues that arerelated, though not necessarily released simultaneously.

Following that, we will deal with the modern (post1982) commemoratives. Over three dozen events are

marked on both our modern coin and stamp issues.A collection o these joint celebrations would be very

interesting and attractive, not to mention a great linkbetween the two most popular hobbies in our country.

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Joint Celebrations Commemorative Coins and Stamps