Bargain Collector: Four Forgotten Classic Commemorative U.S. Half Dollars
Some of the best values in classic U.S. silver aren’t bullion coins—they’re overlooked commemorative half dollars that still trade at surprisingly modest prices.
Since the end of 2025, precious metal prices have made the hunt for bargains in gold or silver a much tougher endeavor than it was a couple of years ago. But the United States Mint has a long history of pounding out some real winners, as well as some coins that don’t really qualify as winners, throughout the decades. In a neat twist, some of the older, classic commemorative silver coins which seem to have been utterly forgotten actually end up being bargains – if we can find them, that is. We’ve assembled four here for our consideration. Let’s look at the reason these coins came to pass first, then the price tags.
The Monroe Doctrine Centennial half dollar
For those of us who haven’t had a history class in quite a while, or for those of us who dozed off during it, the Monroe Doctrine of 1823 was basically a cry from a young United States to have our European “neighbors” keep their hands off. In 1923, a commemorative for the 100th anniversary of this doctrine was issued. With a mintage of 274,077 pieces, it is one of the more common classic commemorative fifty-cent pieces, even though this number is far below the output of modern commemoratives.
The Huguenot-Walloon Tercentenary half dollar
If we made the claim that the Monroe Doctrine was something we all forgot from high school history, well, knowing who the two figures on this half dollar are would be an exercise in extreme optimism. Issued in 1924 to the tune of 142,080 pieces, the coin commemorates New Netherland, which we all know today as New York. It can be considered attractive, but the overall design is a real dog, a true mash-up. The two figures on the obverse, Admiral Coligny and William the Silent, never set foot in the colony, which was founded in 1624. The ship on the reverse, the Nieuw Nederland, set sail decades after both of these figures had been assassinated, in the late 1500s. Yes, assassinated. The French admiral Gaspard de Coligny was killed by a sword stroke, then beheaded, then dragged through the streets of Paris. William was shot twice with pistols, making him truly silent, and giving him the odd record of being the first head of state to be killed with a firearm.
Overall, this half dollar is about as regional and as mismatched in its figures and images as a national coin can get. Yet it is still part of our classic commemoratives series.
The Lexington-Concord Sesquicentennial half dollar
Since we’ve already made a comment about regional events being commemorated on our coins, the 1925 Lexington-Concord Sesquicentennial half dollar becomes a second, rather glaring example of this. The difference might be that many of us do remember these battles as part of the string of events that kick-started our Revolution. The Minute Man figure on the obverse is an image with which many of us are familiar. With an official tally of 162,013, it is not a super-common coin today, though it is not rare either.
The Stone Mountain Memorial half dollar
This fifty-cent piece is rather well known among collectors of classic United States commemorative coins, simply because so many of them were minted, and so many are still to be found, either at a show, in a well-stocked dealer’s shop, or through an online vendor. The original idea was to sell these halves to help fund the massive carving of Generals Lee and Jackson into the face of Stone Mountain, Georgia. But so many were produced, and sales fell below what was expected, that many of the coins were simply put into circulation for the general public to use.
Today, plenty of these can be found with varying degrees of wear on them, simply because a large number of those which were not sold ended up being used in the channels of everyday commerce for years or even decades. Those which show some wear are actually quite inexpensive, but that does not really qualify them as bargains. Rather, let’s do some comparisons of all four of these commems in the various grades of mint state.
All prices considered?
So, as mentioned, for any of these half dollars with a bit of wear on them, each member of this quartet is downright cheap. Only the Huguenot-Walloon fifty-cent piece costs more than $50 in a grade such as very fine, VF-20, or extra fine, EF-40.
Of course, we tend to like classic U.S. silver that has survived in some grade of mint state, perhaps with some attractive toning on it. But even here, we have found that examples of these four in grades as high as MS-61 or MS-62 really aren’t all that expensive. It appears that the jump to MS-64 or to the always-coveted MS-65 is where any possibility of a bargain fades away. Likewise, examples in MS-66 or MS-67 can be rather pricey. Right now, though, a person can grab three of these four for less than $100 at the lower end of mint state, with the Huguenot-Walloon piece only costing a bit more than this price point that we seek so often.
Overall though, these four classic United States commemorative half dollars represent examples of bargains largely because they have been overlooked by the collecting community. They are not extreme rarities, yet by the standards of today’s commem outputs, only one of them would be considered common. So, good luck to any of us who wish to hunt them down and start building this series into a collection of our own.
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