1864 MASONIC ENGRAVED HALF DOLLAR
The June 2014 issue of the Liberty Seated Collectors Club’s electronic newsletter, The E-Gobrecht has a lot of great articles. With permission, here is Len Augsburger's article about an interesting 1864 Masonic Engraved Half Dollar. -Editor
Coins are boring. I mean the coins you’ve seen a million times that aren’t interesting anymore. Turn them all into eBay junk lots, because this month we have something much more interesting to consider. I’m sure quite a few of us are constantly surfing the Internet checking out the latest dealer listings, and once in a great awhile you find something which grabs the attention - like this offering from John Kraljevich Americana:
1864 Masonic Engraved Half Dollar
What we have here is an 1864 half dollar. It is nicely toned, and the surfaces appear to be relatively mark free – aside from the engraving, which has quite a tale to tell. The story starts with the reverse, which is inscribed “Taken from the ruins of Masonic Temple / April 6th 1864.” This refers to the fire which destroyed the Boston Masonic Temple in 1864. Masonry was quite the thing in the early days of our country, more popular than now, and these cathedral-like buildings popped up in the large cities. If you’ve walked around downtown Philadelphia, you’ll get an idea – that Masonic temple, at Penn Square, remains in its original glory.
In Boston, there was nothing left to do but rebuild, and a new temple was raised several years later. But relics were taken from the charred remains in 1864, including ceremonial silver implements which were delivered to the Mint in Philadelphia to be coined into half dollars. (An intrepid researcher is currently searching for the deposit record in the Mint Archives, and we eagerly await his results.)