Wikipedia:Today's featured article/June 22, 2014

The Stone Mountain Memorial half dollar was an American fifty-cent piece struck in 1925. Its main purpose was to raise money for the Stone Mountain Memorial – a large sculpture in memory of Confederate general Robert E. Lee on a huge rock outcropping near Atlanta, Georgia. The obverse of the coin (pictured) features Lee and Stonewall Jackson; the reverse has the caption "Memorial to the Valor of the Soldier of the South". Stone Mountain and the coin were designed by sculptor Gutzon Borglum, who, like other proponents, was a Ku Klux Klan member. To appease Northerners, the proposed coin was also to honor the recently deceased president, Warren G. Harding, but all reference to him was removed, by order of his successor, Calvin Coolidge. Extensive sales efforts for the coin took place throughout the South, though these were hurt by the firing of Borglum in 1925, which alienated many of his supporters. A 1928 audit of the fundraising showed excessive expenses and misuse of money, and construction halted the same year—a scaled-down sculpture was completed in 1970. Due to the large quantities issued, the Stone Mountain Memorial half dollar remains inexpensive compared with other U.S. commemoratives. (Full article...)

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