½ Dollar (Elgin, Ill., Centennial)

The Coin a Sculptor Made to Pay for His Own Statue

In 1936 a young Illinois sculptor talked Congress into a coin. The plan was simple: sell 25,000 silver half dollars at a markup and use the money to cast the pioneer statue he had spent years dreaming up. The coins sold. The statue did not get built — not for another sixty-five years.