OK you Numismatic Gurus... Re: Breen Comment on the Missouri Commem

[texasrichard]

So since I'm in an in between period of buying... that happens when funds run low I've been trying to read up on a coin that is still on my want list... the Missouri Commem.

 

In my copy of Walter Breens Complete Encyclopedia of US and Colonial Coins I came across the following regarding the REV design of the Missouri Commem:

 

"a frontiersman is sending an Indian away, symbolic of the white settlers' expelling Native Americans from Missouri Territory"

 

Hmmm.... if true probably not PC by todays standards.

 

When I looked in my Commemorative Coins of the U.S. by QDB it says the following about the REV design of the Missouri Commem...

 

"On the reverse were shown standing figures of Boone and an Indian, set against a starry background" and references another literature Numismatic Art in America where Cornelius Vermeule analysed the motifs "The reverse is reminiscent of an Indian and a frontiersman standing like Roman soldiers in an Antonine relief on the arch of Constantine"

 

So.... what's the deal ? Do we know for sure ? In viewing the design myself without studying the history it never occured to me that the "indian" was being expelled. That's just me though.

 

Here's a pic of the reverse I borrowed from Coinfacts... hope they don't mind.

 

[leeg]

My Missouri is at PCGS right now for a blessing.

 

 

Robert Aitken, designer of the Panama-Pacific fifty-dollar gold pieces, was chosen to create the missouri commemorative half dollar. Following the Committee's proposals, Aitken at first included the state seal in his sketches for the reverse. He soon dropped it from consideration as unsatisfactory for a coin design. The Committee, however, was evidently unaware of the extensive changes Aitken had made, as the coins continued to be advertised throughout the summer of 1921 as having the state seal on the reverse. Although Chairman Montgomery suggested that the obverse feature a depiction of Daniel Boone with an Indian sitting at his feet, signifying “that the white man had supplanted the Indian in the missouri Territory,” Aitken's final design implied no such sentiment. His obverse showed a profile view of Boone reportedly modeled after a bust of the frontiersman in the New York University Hall of Fame. Boone wears a coonskin cap and buckskin shirt and is flanked by the dates 1821 and 1921. Encircling the periphery are the inscriptions UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and HALF DOLLAR.

 

Aitken's reverse design was a modified version of Montgomery's original concept for the obverse but with both figures standing. A frontiersman points westward with a Native American at his side; both are flanked by twenty-four stars, reinforcing missouri's admission as the twenty-fourth state. The legend missouri CENTENNIAL is above and the city name SEDALIA below. Conspicuously absent are the usual inscriptions LIBERTY, E PLURIBUS UNUM and IN GOD WE TRUST, no doubt omitted for lack of sufficient space. Both obverse and reverse designs are in deep relief, imparting a medallic quality to the coin. Aitken's initials, RA, are neatly placed in the lower right reverse field near the butt of the frontiersman's rifle.

[MikeInFL]

Reminds me of two people looking at the same painting and seeing two entirely different meanings.

 

Will we ever really know the truth?

[texasrichard]

Lee... I knew you'd know more.

 

Thanks. What source do are you using for the info? Actually, I've come across a few things in the Breen Encyclopedia that kind of make me raise my eyebrow...

 

and good luck on the submission

[WoodenJefferson]

LeeG needs full credit for this information

[RWB]

An alternate interpretation is that Boone is pointing out land the Native Americans peacefully ceded during the 1830s. The peace pipe and at-ease rifle reinforce the amiable nature of their meeting. (Of course, Boone could also be pointing the way to the Santa Fe Trail, opened in 1821, so the locals could go west and leave their homeland to Boone & friends.)

[Oldtrader3]

Boone actually was tortured by the Indians after he was captured and his son was killed for encroaching on Shawnee land. Boone was adopted after running the tribe's gauntlet. Boone reportedly stayed with the Shawnee for some time before returning to Pennsylvania to take more settlers west through the Cumberland Gap. Boone respected the Shawnee's right to assert themselves on their land.

 

Since Boone was a Shawnee blood brother, I doubt that Breen's interpretation carries much weight of fact. Breen was mistaken and misguided in many of his theories of interpretation regarding coin designs. I met him once while he was in the process of being convicted of felony, multi-child molestation.