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1935 Spanish Trail Half Dollar |
1935 Spanish Trail Half Dollar
Mintage 10,008
Unlike the Oregon Trail, the Old Spanish Trail wasn't a major key to the opening of the West and the ultimate fulfillment of America's "manifest destiny" The route it followed-from St Augustine, Fla., to El Paso, Tex. -was far more lightly traveled and less strategic. Nonetheless, it had symbolic importance in promoting the nation's development. The Spanish Trail half dollar is not so much a monument to the trail itself, but rather a tribute to the hardy Spanish explorers who blazed the trail amid great hardships four centuries earlier, in 1535. They were led by Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, who spent eight years in the Gulf of Mexico region helping lay the groundwork for future expeditions and explorations. "Cabeza de Vaca" was a hereditary title awarded centuries earlier to an ancestor and maintained thereafter as part of the family name. Translated literally, it means "head of a cow." When plans were made to issue the special coin, no portrait could he found of Cabeza de Vaca. The coin's designer, LW. Hoffecker, hit upon a novel solution: He portrayed the explorer symbolically by featuring the head of a cow. This is on the obverse of the coin. Its reverse depicts a yucca tree in bloom, superimposed upon a map where lines are shown to indicate the route of Cabeza de Vaca and his men. Congress authorized only 10,000 Spanish Trail half dollars. All were made and none melted. Its low mintage makes this one of the key coins in the U.S. commemorative series-a coin that's scarce and hard to find not only in gem condition but in every single grade across the board. Its design, while unorthodox, is uncluttered and appealing-and this, combined with its scarcity, has helped this coin achieve great popularity with collectors. Value $710 - $1,463 |
