Owner Comments:
Nice warm golden toning around the edge, good luster and strike.
In 1935, the Delaware Swedish Tercentenary Commission was created to make plans to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the landing of the Swedes. To help pay for the celebrations, a commemorative half dollar was to be minted and sold to collectors for $1.75 each. 1936 after Congress authorized the coin, a contest was announced for artists to submit their designs and win $500. The contest, published in the Delaware paper The News Journal, required that the obverse be a ship modeled after the Kalmar Nyckel, the dates 1638 and 1938, and a diamond to represent Delaware’s nickname “The Diamond State”. The reverse needed to depict Old Swedes Church, the nation’s oldest church building in continuous use since it was consecrated in 1699. The US Mint, and most collectors (including myself), consider the church side to be the obverse.
Judges John Sinnock, the Mint’s Chief Engraver, and sculptor Dr. Robert Tait McKenzie selected artist Carl L. Schmitz’s designs of the forty submissions to the Delaware Swedish Tercentenary Commission. 25,015 coins were minted in Philadelphia, but only 20,993 were distributed. The remaining were returned to be melted.