Wikipedia:Today's featured article/September 9, 2017

The California Diamond Jubilee half dollar was a US commemorative fifty cent piece, struck at the San Francisco Mint in 1925. The San Francisco Citizens' Committee wanted to use coin sales to fund a celebration of the 75th anniversary of California statehood. A California congressman attached the authorization to another coinage bill, which was approved in early 1925. Designs by sculptor Jo Mora met a hostile reception at the Commission of Fine Arts, but the Citizens' Committee would not change them, and they were approved. The coin has been widely praised for its beauty; the obverse depicts a Gold Rush-era prospector, and the reverse is an adaptation of the Flag of California, showing a grizzly bear. Some 150,000 of the authorized mintage of 300,000 coins were struck in August 1925 in San Francisco. They were offered for sale the following month, but nearly half went unsold, and were later melted. The coin is catalogued at between $200 and $1,300, though exceptional specimens have sold for more.