1952 Washington-Carver Half Dollar Silver Commemorative

The last design released for the early commemorative coins was the George Washington Carver Half Dollar). The authorizing legislation passed in 1951 called for the melting of all unsold Booker T. Washington Half Dollars and the recoinage into coins bearing conjoined profile portraits of George Washington Carver and Booker T. Washington.

Part of the impetus for the approval of the final commemorative coin program seems to have been the intended purpose to “oppose the spread of Communism among black Americans in the interest of national defence.”

The revised and later approved models featured both portraits in profile, surrounded by lengthy inscriptions. On the reverse was a simple map of the United States of America, curiously with Delaware omitted.

In 1952, there was some attempt to issue the coins broadly through banks, but many were eventually distributed at or near face value. By the end of the program, more than one million coins would be distributed.