The Half Dollar for America's Five-Star Generals

Five stars is the ceiling. In the entire history of the United States Army, only five officers have worn that rank: George C. Marshall, Douglas MacArthur, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Henry "Hap" Arnold, and Omar N. Bradley. They ran the war that beat Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, and most of them passed through the same gate in Kansas to learn how.

That gate belongs to the Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth — the school where the Army teaches officers to command large formations. All five generals studied or taught there. In 2010 Congress decided to honor them and the school in one stroke, passing the Five-Star Generals Commemorative Coin Act (Public Law 111-262), signed by President Obama on October 8, 2010.

The result was a three-coin program for 2013: a $5 gold coin, a silver dollar, and the clad half dollar described here — the affordable, everyday-denomination entry that let anyone own a piece of the tribute for about twenty dollars. A commemorative is a coin Congress authorizes for a special occasion; it is legal tender but sold to collectors at a premium, not spent at the store.

The obverse — the heads side — carries two faces. On the left is Henry "Hap" Arnold, the airman who built the wartime Army Air Forces into a global power and later became the only person to hold five-star rank in two services. On the right is Omar N. Bradley, the steady infantry commander Eisenhower trusted to lead American ground forces in Europe, and the last living five-star general when he died in 1981. Above them float the five stars of the rank itself, with LIBERTY, IN GOD WE TRUST, their names, and the date 2013.

The reverse — the tails side — drops the portraits entirely and shows the heraldic crest of Fort Leavenworth, tying the coin back to the school that links all five honorees. Around it run UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, E PLURIBUS UNUM, and the denomination, HALF DOLLAR.

Both sides are the work of one artist: Phebe Hemphill, a Mint sculptor-engraver, who designed and sculpted the obverse and the reverse. It is a clean, restrained piece — two soldiers and an emblem, no fuss.

Here is the quiet headline: the Mint was allowed to strike up to 750,000 of these and made fewer than 90,000 in total. The final figures came in at 38,095 uncirculated coins (the Denver "D" pieces) and 47,326 proof coins (the San Francisco "S" pieces) — a proof being a specially struck coin made on polished dies for a mirror-like finish, sold to collectors.

That makes the Five-Star Generals half dollar genuinely scarce by modern commemorative standards, even though it was inexpensive when new. There are no major die varieties or "key dates" to chase here — it is a one-year, two-mint issue. The interest is in the low total mintage and in finding examples in the highest grades. Because these coins went straight from the Mint into collector hands, top-grade survivors (a flawless proof or a pristine uncirculated piece) are the prize, and certification in a graded holder is how the market sorts them.

It also rides the coattails of a famously thin program. Across all three denominations, the 2013 Five-Star Generals coins sold poorly compared with the Mint's hopes — the gold issues in particular posted some of the lowest commemorative mintages of their era — which is exactly why collectors keep an eye on the set today.