About Us

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In the earlier 90's, I was browsing in an Antique Store in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia.  I came across something I never saw before, a large $5 and $10 dollar bill. It was much larger than the paper money of today. I asked the owner were they real and she said yes. She explained to me that paper money from 1861 to 1929 where very large and were call "horse blankets". It wasn't until the 1929 that bill were reduced to what they are today.

When I returned home to DC, I was excited to show my father the bills that I bought at the antique store. I showed him the bills and he stated that he had not seen a bill that size since he was a child.

Then my father told me a story that I could not believe did not believe about a coin. He said, when he was a young sergeant in the army stationed over sea during WWII, a young white officer who just arrived from the States came over to him and said
Look here Sergeant White, they got coins with a colored man on it back home. My father looked at the coin and sure enough he was looking and touching a coin with Booker T Washington on it. As my father gave the coin back to him, the young officer said the had to go, but when he sees him, my father again, he will give him the coin. Well, my father never saw the officer nor that coin again.

As my father was telling me this story, I was telling myself, this can't be right! Surely I would have learned about such a thing in school. I promptly dismissed what he said and thought nothing more of it until months later.

Still fascinated with my large bills, I bought a coin magazine, determine to find out the cost of my antique store find. As I'm looking thru the magazine, I come across an article and picture about a coin. To my surprise, it was an article about a silver commemoratory half dollar that featured Booker T Washington. The exact coin my father was telling me about! OMG! Daddy was right.

As I read the article about the Commemoratory Silver Half Dollar Booker T Washington Coin, all I could think about was finding this coin.

A few weeks later, while at work, I found myself parked in front of a coin store in Queens, NY. I decide to go inside and asked about the Booker T Washington Commemoratory Half Dollar Coin.  I was told by the owner that he didn't have the Booker T Washington Commemoratory Half Dollar Coin, but he did have the George Washington Carver Commemoratory Half Dollar Coin. In my mind I said WHAT! THERE'S ANOTHER COIN! As the owner showed me the coin, I knew right then and there I had to have it! The owner stated that he gets theses coins all the time when someone passes away the the family don't know what to do with coin collections. He told me to come back in a few weeks and he should have one back in stock. I bought the George Washington Carver Commemoratory Half Dollar Coin and left.

Sure enough, when I returned a few weeks later, he had my coin. From that moment on, I was determined to find as many of these coins that I can.

Christmas of that year, I gifted my father, the Booker T Washington Commemoratory Half Dollar Coin that he had not seen since the 1940's and the George Washington Carver Commemoratory Half Dollar Coin. I said to him, "See Daddy, I do listen to you when you talk."

In 1946 the United States Mint honored Booker T Washington with his likeness on a Commemorative  half silver dollar. Each Mint; from Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco  minted this Commemorative silver half dollar between1946 to 1951 making a total of 18 coins. The proceeds from the sale of these coins were to help fund the building of a Memorial in Booker T Washington honor in Franklin County Virginia. 

In 1951 the Us Mint then honored George Washington Carver and Booker T Washington on a Commemorative coin. Again, the Philadelphia, Denver and San Francisco Mints each minted this coin until 1954 make a total of 12 of theses coins made.

Millions of theses coins where minted, but unfortunately because of poor sales, a lot of these coins were returned to the mint and melted down. Some of these coins did make it into circulation.