Lot 1595
1921-D Liberty Walking Half Dollar. Improperly cleaned. Well struck and frosty. Sure looks like a MS63 plus example. The minting of all coins save for the newly mandated silver dollars was way down in 1921, due to a short but severe recession which set in following the end of the World War. Nearly all 1921-dated half dollars from the three mints were struck in the early months. After that, the demand for additional circulation strikes ended; the massive quantities issued prior to this were more than adequate to meet the lowered requirements of post-war commerce.
With the Democrat Woodrow Wilson on the sick list (he would die from complications of a series of strokes that debilitated him in his last year of the presidenccy), in 1921, a Republican-elected replacement took office. President Warren Gamaliel Harding (1921-23) was a decent man of reasonable talents, quip the historians. He held poker games in the White House twice a week. And whenever he got a chance, he sneaked away to a burlesque show. The ladies loved him; he returned the favor. These pastimes seemed enough for the man; they helped him bear up in his eminent role and keep him from wanting to do anything. Another saving grace was that Harding neither thought nor spoke clearly enough for anyone to figure out what he was saying. He couldn't rally the troops and get them behind his ideas; he had none. And even if he tried, they wouldn't comprehend him.
H.L. Mencken, the social comentator and political gadfly of the twenties, preserved a bit of what he called "Gamalielese," just to hold it up to ridicule:
"I would like government to do all it can to mitigate, then, in understanding in mutuality of interest, in concern for the common good, our tasks will be solved."
The sentence is so idiotic and meaningless, it could have come from the mouths of any of our recent elected representatives. But the crowds seemed to like the way Harding delivered it. He said it with such solid conviction, it "was like a blacksmith bringing down a hammer on an egg," says Mencken.
Estimated Value $2,500 - 2,700.
The Cypress Estate.
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| Realized $8,050 |
