About this coin

Face value: one half dollar (50¢)
Collector value: in circulated condition, at least the value of the silver (at the time of this writing, $3.0960664)

Toastapalooza

This is a great coin, beautifully designed, big and heavy, silky to the touch. When you're accustomed to coins in lighter modern metals, a weighty old piece of silver like this seems a deadly serious piece of money.

And it was, too. During the Great Depression, this half dollar was enough to buy a loaf of bread, a quart of milk and a dozen eggs. And that, my friends, is a hell of a lot of french toast in anyone's book.

And we won't come back 'til it's over over there

This coin, like the 'Mercury' dime, was designed by German immigrant Adolph Alexander Weinman. It was part of a redesign of currency that included that dime and the 'Standing Liberty' quarter, as well. All three were released on the eve of America's entry into the Great War, when we were still determined to stay well out of it, and thought we might just squeak by. All three are stuffed full of symbolism. Strong, evocative symbolism. Symbolic of what, exactly...nobody was quite sure.

Liberty strides across the face of this half dollar, literally wrapped in the American flag, against the rising sun. In her arms branches of laurel and oak, symbolic of civic and military accomplishments — qualities we were hoping we wouldn't have to demonstrate in a European family squabble.

On the reverse, a sapling springing from the rock symbolizes the New World springing from the old. For a generation raised on Road Runner cartoons, it makes one distinctly uneasy to see that big ol' eagle step off the cliff edge onto that little whippity sapling. Oh well...at least he can fly.

I'm not making fun. The ambiguity is entirely appropriate. These coins were introduced at a time when our message abroad was, "we don't want to get involved, but if we do — look out!" When they were retired, the message could have been, "see? We told you so." They neatly span the two world wars and neatly encapsulate both the rise in power and loss of innocence that this period represented to America. It's a pretty good design that can hold all that without breaking.

A token of my...

People have had superstitious feelings about coins for as long as there have been coins. And people. Coins have a market value derived from the nation that mints them, an intrinsic value derived from the metals they are struck from and an indefinable mystical value that accrues from all the hands that touch them, the lands they come from, the symbols writ thereon, the transactions they pass through and the stories they take part in. Coins have frequently been the stuff of folk magic, actively through charms and spells and informally as luck pieces.

It's common for coins to turn up in bulk purchases punched or drilled — once to hang on chains or multiple times to be used as buttons — or plated or carved or damaged apparently on purpose.

Sometimes coins are altered with great skill. Lincoln gets a shave, Liberty's seat is carved into a toilet, or the E in CENT recarved into a U. That last makes me sad, because I really hoped my Grandmother didn't know that word.

Coins bent into a cup shape were given by men to their sweethearts until the late 16th Century. Silver coins — dimes in the US, sixpenceses in the UK — were always popular for these tokens and other magic charms. Sorcerers like bits of silver. In a pinch, I suppose one could be melted down and poked through a werewolf.

In the 18th and 19th Centuries, in both America and Britain, engraved coins were given as love tokens. A common coin would be ground smooth on one side, and initials and other designs carved into the polished metal. Soldiers and sailors going to war would often make such things for their sweethearts, and the custom persisted for many years as a Valentine's ritual. Collectors, irked that coins which are now quite valuable were treated in this way, often refer to carved love tokens as "defaced." The quality of designs and engraving on these little pieces is often extraordinary, though — especially considering the engraver was traditionally the giver himself. There are collectors who prize them, and an eBay search of "love token" will turn up many beautiful examples.

But not this little beauty

I originally bought a roll of these to leave in caches as First To Find prizes. In fact, one way or another, I've sent nearly all of them to US troops Iraq. Just as they are, they seem the right sort of token to send to people doing a hard, thankless, important job a long, long way from home.

Think of them as symbolizing all the American hands they have passed through, and all the American things they have bought. All the hamburgers, hair cuts, comic books, monster movies, gallons of gas, cans of Coke, firecrackers, Valentine's cards, cut flowers, cigarettes, jiggers of whisky and rounds of ammunition fifty good American cents would be asked to buy in the three decades between the great wars. All that, and the best wishes of your old Auntie Weasel.

Just the charm to rattle around in your pocket, gents.

If this coin lands in your hands, I'd love to hear about it. Address correspondence to: coins@FieldNotebook.com.