The coins featured a common obverse from California artist Cassie McFarland, whose design, a baseball glove, was selected after a national competition was held. The common reverse, as mandated by Congress, depicts a baseball design from Mint sculptor-engraver Don Everhart. Everhart engraved both the common obverse and reverse of the coins. The Mint faced difficulties during production, as the curved coins were unlike anything they had struck before. The half eagles were minted at the West Point Mint, the dollars were minted at the Philadelphia Mint, and the uncirculated and proof half dollars were minted at the Denver Mint and San Francisco Mint, respectively.
The coins were released to the public on March 27, 2014, and were immediately popular with collectors, with the gold half eagle coins selling out the day of release. The dollar would also sell out and the half dollar saw over half its authorized mintage sold, a massive success for the program. Surcharges collected from sales of the coins totaled $7.9 million and were paid to the Hall to fund its operations. The clad half dollar won the Coin of the Year Award for 2014-dated issues, and also won the Most Innovative Coin category. The Mint would continue to issue curved coins, such as the Apollo 11 50th Anniversary commemorative coins in 2019 and the Basketball Hall of Fame commemorative coins in 2020.
The National Baseball Hall of Fame Commemorative Coin Act was introduced into the House of Representatives on July 14, 2011 by Representative Richard Hanna of New York's 24th District, which is where Cooperstown is located.[2] The bill was approved by the House Financial Service Committee on July 20, with an amendment offered by New Mexico Representative Steve Pearce stating that the reverse of the coins must resemble a baseball with a convex shape, citing the 2009 International Year of Astronomy coins produced by the Monnaie de Paris as an example.[3] A companion bill was introduced in the Senate by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York on October 26, 2011 after the House bill passed.[4][5] The legislation received bipartisan support in the Senate, passing with unanimous consent on July 12, 2012, and a change to the year of issue (the bill originally stated the year of minting to be 2015 when the anniversary was in 2014) was approved by the House on July 19.[5] The legislation was enacted into law (Pub. L.112–152 (text)(PDF)) by President Barack Obama on August 3, and authorized the Mint to strike and issue 50,000 gold half eagles, 400,000 silver dollars, and 750,000 clad half dollars in recognition of the National Baseball Hall of Fame's 75th anniversary.[2] Surcharges from the coin would be given to the Hall, with $5 for each half dollar, $10 for each dollar, and $35 for each half eagle, with a total potential to earn $9.5 million for the Hall.
During initial test strikes in 2013, it was discovered that the curved coins would have a slightly smaller diameter, described as a "few thousandths of an inch,"[6] than what was authorized under the bill, meaning that custom planchets were needed to meet the requirements.[7] To save costs, Representative Hanna introduced another bill on March 12, 2013 to amend the law so that the Mint could use existing planchets to strike the coins. The bill, entitled "To specify the size of the precious-metal blanks that will be used in the production of the National Baseball Hall of Fame commemorative coins" passed the House by voice vote on April 24 and passed the Senate on May 7 by unanimous consent before being signed into Public Law 113–10 (Pub. L.113–10 (text)(PDF)) by President Obama on May 17.[8] This law has received attention for its insignificance.[9][10]
Design
Obverse
Obverse of the gold half eagle, silver dollar, and clad half dollar, each depicting the common baseball glove design from Cassie McFarland, adapted by Mint engraver Don Everhart.
The law mandated that a common obverse design, "emblematic of the game of baseball," was to be selected from a public competition, with final approval from the Secretary of Treasury.[11] A ceremony led by Gillibrand and Hanna in a Senate hearing room launched the competition, and featured retired Baltimore Orioles third baseman Brooks Robinson as a speaker.[12] The competition ran one month from April 11 to May 11, 2013, with a maximum limit of 10,000 designs allowed. The Mint stated they would only accept submissions from those age 14 and above, and that designs could not be submitted by Department of Treasury or Mint employees, contractors, and their immediate family in fears of allegations of favoritism.[13] The Mint received 178 design proposals, and a team of Mint engravers and one Bureau of Engraving and Printing designer selected 26 semifinalist designs. A panel of baseball players in the Hall of Fame, consisting of Robinson, Dave Winfield, Ozzie Smith, Don Sutton, and Joe Morgan, selected the 16 finalist designs.[14]
McFarland modeled her design from her own "well-worn" baseball glove
The Commission of Fine Arts (CFA) met on July 18 to discuss the finalist designs and quickly agreed that the best design was one submitted by Cassie McFarland, a graphic artist from San Luis Obispo, California, which featured a baseball glove.[15] During their July 23 meeting, the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee (CCAC) shared enthusiasm for McFarland's design, with the 10 committee members giving it the highest possible score from within the committee's internal scoring system.[16] With the backing of the CCAC and CFA, Acting Mint Director Richard Peterson recommended McFarland's design to Acting Deputy Treasury Secretary Mary J. Miller, who approved it September 9.[17] McFarland was unaware that her design was selected by the CFA until she was contacted by the numismatic magazine Coin World for an interview.[18] She had only discovered the competition near the last day after searching online for information about Shell's "Mr. President" coin game for an art project, and decided to enter it on "a whim."[19][20] An unveiling ceremony had been planned on October 8 in Washington, D.C., however it was cancelled due to the ongoing federal government shutdown. McFarland was awarded $5,000 for winning the competition.[21]
McFarland's design, titled "A Hand Full of Gold", was modeled off a "well-worn" baseball glove that belonged to her family,[18] which she later donated to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.[22] McFarland, who had played softball as a child, wanted an "accessible" design. McFarland "wanted the relief to convey the texture of a real baseball glove"[18] with that the concavity of the glove making the design give a "realistic feel."[19] The common inscriptions LIBERTY and IN GOD WE TRUST appear in the center of the glove, with the date 2014 below. McFarland's original design included wheat sheaths, due to her family's connection to the Grange.[18] Some members of the CFA were not happy with the wheat sheaths on the design,[15] and recommended that the they be removed.[23] Mint engraver Don Everhart, when adapting the design for use on the coin, removed the wheat sheaths as he believed it would be "confused for the stitching."[17] Everhart used his own son's Little League glove as a reference when sculpting, wanting the design "to look as closely as possible to a real glove."[17]
Reverse
A provision of the law stated that the common reverse of the coin must depict "a baseball similar to those used by Major League Baseball."[24] Mint artists created six designs that were presented to the CCAC during a meeting on March 11, 2013, however the committee members were "aghast" at what they saw.[24] Chairperson Gary Marks and member Erik Jensen wanted the prominent area of the convex design to display the wording UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, and were disappointed with the six designs. During the meeting, Mint sculptor-engraver Don Everhart and Mint employee Steve Antonucci quickly sketched a seventh design based off the second design presented, which the committee voted overwhelmingly to endorse.[24] The CFA endorsed the same design to Acting Mint Director Peterson on March 28.[25] The final reverse design was unveiled during Hall of Fame Induction Weekend at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y on July 26, after receiving approval from Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal S. Wolin.[26][27]
The reverse design depicts a baseball with the denomination of each coin below the bottom stitching, with HALF DOLLAR for the clad half dollar, ONE DOLLAR for the silver dollar, and FIVE DOLLARS on the gold half eagle.[27] The motto E PLURIBUS UNUM appears under UNITED STATES OF AMERICA centered on the axis of the ball. Everhart stated "the idea was to use the convex side to the fullest extent and capture the illusion of a baseball."[17] Evarhart's initials "DE" appear towards the right of the denomination, near the rim.
Striking
Copper issue of the curved 1973 Congressional Gold medal presented to Roberto Clemente
The law stated, if possible, that the dollar and half eagle were to be struck curved, so that the reverse would be "convex to more closely resemble a baseball," referencing the 2009 International Year of Astronomy coins issued by the French Mint, the Monnaie de Paris.[28] The half dollar was originally intended to be struck flat, yet Director Peterson decided that it was also to be struck curved as well, adding to the challenges the Mint faced.[29] The Mint had never struck a curved coin before; it had however struck a curved Congressional Gold medal in 1973 for Pittsburgh Pirates right fielder Roberto Clemente, with the copper variants sold to the public.[30]
Die preparations typically began for commemorative coins after designs had been approved, but the Mint anticipated technical challenges and began work on them before the reverse and obverse designs were approved.[31] The Mint consulted with the Monnaie de Paris as well as the two Australian mints, the Perth Mint and the Royal Australian Mint, during their initial research; the Royal Australian Mint had issued a curved five dollar coin in 2012 to commemorate the Southern Cross.[32] The team that worked on prototyping the dies was led by Steve Antonucci, the Mint's manager of digital development, who acquired one of the French coins to analyze. After creating a 3-D model of the French coin, Antonucci determined that they could mint a more pronounced strike for the baseball coins.[33] The team then use CNC milling to create their own test dies, a first for the team, featuring a nonsense design of a billiard ball and pool player.[31]
The half dollar faced numerous issues, as it was not intended originally to be curved. The half dollar was clad, meaning that it was composed of a copper core with an outer layer made of a copper-nickel alloy. During test strikes, the metal in the clad planchets separated, a problem known as delamination, leading to the Mint to reduce the curvature of the half dollar.[34] This was not an issue for the silver and gold coins, as they would be solid alloys as opposed to clad. The designs were also tweaked, with adjustments made to the lettering to fit the dome, and the glove was to have a "leather-like texture" achieved with laser frosting for the proof issues.[35] The dome of the gold half eagle would be 0.085 inch (2.159 millimeters), the silver eagle 0.150 inch (3.81 millimeters), and the clad half 0.058 inch (1.4732 millimeters).[31] Die life was also a problem for the half dollar, which was solved by changing the slope of the curve, reducing the rim, and by swapping the reverse and obverse dies on the coin press.[31]
Reverse for the gold half eagle. The gold half eagle sold out the day of issue.
The Mint anticipated high demand for the coin, and before release planned to use an online queue or "waiting room" to avoid their website from crashing. The coins were released to the public on March 27, 2014, both online and at Whitman Expo, a major coin show held in Baltimore.[37] At the coin show, numismatist Q. David Bowers noted that “the crowd of buyers in line to make purchases at the U.S. Mint sales display extended partway across the bourse floor, across the lobby of the Baltimore Convention Center, and into the street!”[37] There were also a long line at the Mint's physical store in Washington, D.C.[38] The authorized mintage of gold coins sold out in hours, leaving many collectors frustrated with their experience in the online waiting room.[38] The silver coins were also reported to have sold out two weeks later, but some orders were shipped as late as December 2014.[39]
The program was immensely popular and seen as a success for the Mint and Hall of Fame, which received $7.9 million from surcharges on the coins.[40][41] The gold coins were highly sought after on the secondary market, and major coin grading companies PCGS and NGC signed deals with Major League Baseball Hall of Fame players to sign graded coin slabs.[42][43] A silver dollar graded MS-70 by PCGS with a Cal Ripken Jr. signature sold for $500.[44] The design received praise from numismatists; at the Coin of the Year Awards, the clad half dollar won Coin of the Year and Most Innovative Coin and the gold half eagle won Best Gold Coin.[45] The coin would inspire the curved design of the Apollo 11 50th Anniversary commemorative coins, which would release in 2019.[46]
Sales figures
The price for the half dollar and dollar rose $4 one month after release, and the prices for the dollar and half eagle rose $5.[47] In 2017, it was discovered that the Mint had oversold the half eagle by 104 pieces.[48]
National Baseball Hall of Fame commemorative coin sales (as of December 2014)[36][49]
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