Q. David Bowers
In June 1935 the Philadelphia Mint produced the full authorization of 10,000 coins plus eight extra for assay. Toward the end of the next month the pieces were shipped to the First National Bank & Trust Company of Hudson for delivery to the Hudson Sesquicentennial Committee (a name which apparently was conceived after the original coining act was passed, for no mention of a committee by this name appears in the enabling legislation).
Orders were accepted beginning the first week of May by the Executive Committee of the Sesquicentennial, through John R. Evans at the First National Bank & Trust Company, Hudson. The cost was $1 each plus 18 cents for registration and three cents postage for each two coins. It was intended that sales would commence on June 28, 1935, but only a few days later, on July 2, it was stated that the entire issue had been sold out and that no pieces were available. Relatively few collectors had placed orders by the time that the "sold out" notice was posted.
Subsequently John R. Evans informed buyers that "reservations for these coins have been accepted since the first part of May. The coins were received from the Mint on June 28, and July 2 the supply was depleted .... The demand was so great that our entire 10,000 has been exhausted and there are no more available except through a few dealers who purchased them." Two dealers were the main buyers: Guttag Brothers (42 Stone Street, New York City) and Hubert W. Carcaba (182 Magnolia Avenue, St. Augustine, Florida). Julius Guttag of Guttag Brothers was believed to have obtained 7,500 coins for 95¢ each. Guttag's involvement became an inside joke with his coin dealer competitors, who slyly referred to Hudson coins as "Guttag half dollars." (Per correspondence from John R. Evans to Walter P. Nichols, undated, circa early July 1935. Also L.W. Hoffecker files. Guttag was to become involved in the distribution of the 1938-dated New Rochelle half dollars.)
In testimony before the Senate Committee on Banking and Currency, March 11, 1936, L.W. Hoffecker, chairman of the Legislative Committee of the American Numismatic Association, discussed the Hudson half dollar. (From Coinage of Commemorative 50-Cent Pieces, the transcript of the hearing, published in 1936.)
Mr. Hoffecker: "The Hudson issue was delivered on the 29th day of June, and they reported on the 2nd day of July that all had been disposed. One dealer is reported to have 7,500 of them that he bought for 95 cents apiece, but we cannot prove it."
(Later in the same hearing:)
Senator Francis T. Maloney: "In the Hudson case there were 10,000 coins which were issued. What about the price five years thereafter?"
Mr. Hoffecker: "I understand that 7,500 of them were bought at 95 cents apiece and laid away, and whoever got them is laying them by, and they won't tell you that they have them. The coins are selling for $8.50 today."
Senator Maloney: "Is that the cash price?" Mr. Hoffecker: "Yes. There were only a couple of issues before that which ever went up to that price. There was the Captain Cook coin that was gotten out in 1925 [sic], I believe, and they got an issue of 10,000, and they only allowed five to each purchaser. (An inaccurate recollection of the distribution of the 1928 Hawaiian half dollar.) But in this matter I will say that a dealer can do just as they did with me, can get some friend of his to write in, from a different address, and ask for coins. Their coins went up to about $12 during the war[?], and then dropped back to $8.50. They were well distributed."
Hubert W. Carcaba wrote to rare coin dealer Walter P. Nichols on July 25, 1935, stating that he was "fortunate enough to secure some of the Hudson issue but most of them have already been sold. I can supply you with them at the present for $2.00 each limited to 100 coins. Have a line on 200 more but haven't as yet received an answer from the holder. Some of the New York houses have bought of me at the above price. One hundred are being shipped tomorrow to another dealer. Let me know your wants soon as the present stock won't last long and prices will be higher on any new ones purchased." As it turned out, the $2 price would be an incredible bargain.
Numismatists React
As might be expected, collectors whose orders were returned by the issuing bank were incensed, and numerous complaints were registered to the American Numismatic Association, the editor of The Numismatist, the American Numismatic Society, and just about anyone else who would listen. A deluge of bad publicity overtook the city of Hudson itself.
Many people suspected foul play, especially since Hudson half dollars were aplenty on the market and in dealers' stocks at $5 to $7 a short time after the original distribution ended. Even at those inflated prices, coins were snapped up by eager buyers, and those speculators who thought to hold back coins soon saw prices reach an even higher level.
A disgruntled numismatist styling himself as "A. Shornlamb," from "Antihudson, New York," under date of December 15, 1935, wrote a letter to the editor of The Numismatist, which was published in the February 1936 issue:
"In looking over the index of the 1935 Numismatist it was noted that no description of the Hudson half dollar had been given, and I hasten to fill this gap in numismatic literature. So far as known, this piece is the first ever dedicated to the coin collector. Everything about it shows the purpose for which it was issued. Behold, on the obverse, the ship of Hudson homeward bound in all its triumph. Is it not laden, oh, my friends, with the catch of a most profitable expedition to the Sea of Suckers, where the proverbial one is born every minute? Obviously enough, the ship is none other than the Half Moon, but why it was so christened has never been revealed until now. It seems that the success of such voyages is so dependent upon the influence of the moon that they are conducted entirely under her soothing rays. Indeed, great importance is even attached to the proper naming of the ship to more speedily reduce the suckers to the state of subjugation required to land them. What more convincing proof need there be than the idiotic grinning of Luna on the coin itself? (please insert cuts of obverse and reverse of coin.)
"(Editor's Note-The editor has no cut of the Hudson half dollar. And he has no Hudson half dollar from which to make a cut. In the circumstances, he reserves the right to decline to purchase one at the price asked.)