History of the Coin:
Colombian Exposition Half Dollars were made in 1892 and 1893 and both were sold as souvenirs for $1 at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. The show opened a year late and that is why there are two dates for this coin. The two dates that they are available in are 1892 and 1893. These coins were sold at the fair but they did not go over very well with fair goers. Fair-goers balked at paying one dollar for a fifty cent value coin. Many years later, the remaining coins were released to U.S. banks at face value; that’s the reason there are so many circulated examples still around in coin shops today.