In March 1937, as the celebrations for the 350th anniversary of the the ill-fated Roanoke Colony were underway and heading toward the presentation of "The Lost Colony" play in front of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on August 18, 1937 (the specific anniversary date of Virginia Dare's birth), companion bills were introduced in the House and Senate that called for the "coinage of 50-cent pieces in commemoration of the three hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the introduction of American-grown tobacco in England by Sir Walter Raleigh and the three hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary of the culture of tobacco by Anglo-Saxons -- John Rolfe, husband of the Indian princess, Pocahontas, having planted the first acres in the Virginia Colony in 1612."
The "Historic Jamestowne" web site of the National Park Service states that "John Wolfe was growing [Trinidad tobacco] experimentally by 1612 in Virginia. Rolfe's agricultural attempt was an unqualified success." Here's a link to the NPS web site and its "Tobacco: The Early History of a New World Crop" page:
https://www.nps.gov/jame/learn/hist...ld-crop.htm.The House bill was introduced by Thomas Granville Burch (D-VA); the Senate bill by Harry Floyd Byrd (D-VA). Each of the bills was immediately referred to its designated Committee: the Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures in the House, and the Committee on Banking and Currency in the Senate.
(Side Note: In 1935, the year of the first Festival, Senator Byrd's only daughter - Westwood Beverley Byrd - was crowned the Festival's Queen. A quid pro quo scenario?)The bills called for the minting of up to 50,000 coins on behalf of the Finance Committee of The National Tobacco Festival (Third Annual), to be held in South Boston, Virginia. The bills indicated that the Festival was affiliated with the Virginia State Chamber of Commerce, but did not specify a role for the Chamber. The bills had no connection to the Roanoke Colony half dollar or its sponsors - in essence, the bills served in the role of "direct competitor."
The bills specified that the coins were to be struck at a single Mint facility. would bear the date "1937" and would have an expiration of authority occurring one year after enactment (i.e., no additional coinage orders could be placed after one year). An additional safeguard for collectors was included: coin orders were required to be for a minimum of 25,000 coins - no "boutique" mintage requests for 2,000 or 3,000 coins would be allowed.
Neither of the bills was reported out by its respective Committee and so died for lack of action. I'd like to think that one of the reasons the Committees chose not to report and recommend the bills was their (IMO) thinly-veiled attempt to ride the coattails of the previously-approved Roanoke Colony half dollar legislation.
For other of my What If? posts, as well as other posts about commemorative coins and medals, see:
Commems Collection.
Posted 03/12/2022 09:33 am
