Norfolk coin

n recent years, complaints that Congress is too careless in authorizing commemorative
coin issues are frequently heard. It’s been said that too many events and causes of only
limited national importance have been honored and funded through the sale of such coins.
Obviously, Congress has a knack for repeating its mistakes, since the same complaints were
voiced 60 years earlier and ultimately led to legislation that greatly restricted the approval
of new coin issues. Among the coins that prompted this action during the 1930s was the half
dollar honoring the bicentennial of Norfolk, Virginia’s elevation to the status of borough in 1736.
This commemorative marked an event of purely local interest, and its design bore no less than
five different dates, none of which was the actual date of coinage! Much maligned at the time of issue,
the Norfolk half dollar realized poor sales. In the irony that often attends such initial failure, it is now
among the scarcer and more costly coins in the commemorative series.