Wikipedia:Today's featured article/requests/Oregon Trail Memorial half dollar

Oregon Trail Memorial half dollar

 * The following discussion is an archived discussion of the TFAR nomination of the article below. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as Wikipedia talk:Today's featured article/requests). Please do not modify this page unless you are renominating the article at TFAR. For renominations, please add   to the top of the discussion and   at the bottom, then complete a new TFAR nom underneath.

The result was: scheduled for Today's featured article/November 19, 2014 by BencherliteTalk 10:23, 5 November 2014 (UTC)



The Oregon Trail Memorial half dollar was a fifty-cent piece struck intermittently by the United States Bureau of the Mint between 1926 and 1939. The coin was designed by Laura Gardin Fraser and James Earle Fraser, and honors those who traveled the Oregon Trail and settled the Pacific Coast of the United States. Ohio-born Ezra Meeker had traveled the Trail with his family in 1852 and spent the final two decades of his long life publicizing the Trail. In 1926, at age 95, he appeared before a Senate committee, requesting that the government issue a commemorative coin to raise money for markers to show where the Trail had been. The many varieties produced after Meeker's death in 1928 came to be considered ripoffs, and in 1939 Congress ended the series. The Oregon Trail Memorial Association, distributor of the coin, had difficulty in selling them, and they remained available from the OTMA's successor organization as late as 1953. Just over 260,000 of the 6,000,000 authorized coins were struck, of which about 60,000 were melted. The US commemorative coin struck over the longest period, the Oregon Trail Memorial half dollar has been widely praised for its design.
 * Most recent similar article(s): Indian Head eagle (August 31)
 * Main editors: Wehwalt
 * Promoted: 2012
 * Reasons for nomination: Just figure it's time. I've been holding this one back pending publication of articles on the coin, and now that they are out and safely integrated into the article, it's good to go.  Time for another coin, I daresay.
 * Support as nominator. Wehwalt (talk) 01:23, 27 October 2014 (UTC)
 * Support, but I humbly would ask to take The Oregon Trail (video game) to WP:FA or at least WP:GA. :P Cheers, &mdash; Cirt (talk) 01:35, 27 October 2014 (UTC)
 * ...I suppose that'd be a nice goal,, but why him and why that page? Tezero (talk) 06:11, 27 October 2014 (UTC)
 * Because is awesome at quality improvement projects and it's a neat page. :P &mdash; Cirt (talk) 08:05, 27 October 2014 (UTC)
 * I admit to playing early versions of the game. If I had the refs, I'd consider it.--Wehwalt (talk) 11:23, 27 October 2014 (UTC)


 * Support. I can't fathom in the obscurest depths of me how coins can be this interesting to write so many FAs and GAs about, but I suppose the same could be said of me and games about fast, colorful animals. It's a fine article and a fine blurb, though I've added a space where one was missing. Tezero (talk) 06:11, 27 October 2014 (UTC)
 * Support another high value article, with all that stunning background of Ezra Meeker (which I had the pleasure to translate to German) and the Trail, but suggest to wait for Dec 29, his birthday, --Gerda Arendt (talk) 08:09, 27 October 2014 (UTC)
 * Comment Another sentence should be added; currently at 1076 characters rather than 1200. Prhartcom (talk) 21:44, 29 October 2014 (UTC)
 * I've played with it some.--Wehwalt (talk) 22:25, 29 October 2014 (UTC)
 * Support Looks good. Article is in fine shape. Good seeing you around here, Wehwalt. Prhartcom (talk) 22:33, 29 October 2014 (UTC)


 * Support - Nice piece. Carrite (talk) 15:48, 30 October 2014 (UTC)
 * Many thanks to both of you.--Wehwalt (talk) 21:00, 30 October 2014 (UTC)