The Elgin, Illinois, Centennial half dollar was a fifty-cent commemorative coin issued by the U.S. Bureau of the Mint in 1936, part of the wave of commemoratives authorized by Congress and struck that year. Intended to commemorate the centennial of the founding of Elgin, the piece was designed by local sculptor Trygve Rovelstad. The obverse depicts an idealized head of a pioneer man. The reverse shows a grouping of pioneers, and is based upon a sculptural group that Rovelstad hoped to build as a memorial to those who settled Illinois, but which was not erected in his lifetime. He hoped that the coin would both depict and be a source of funds for the memorial. Texas coin dealer L.W. Hoffecker, who assisted Rovelstad, was able to sell about 20,000 coins, four- fifths of the issue: the remaining 5,000 were returned to the Mint for melting. Unlike many commemorative coins of that era, the piece was not bought up by dealers and speculators, but was sold directly to collectors at the issue price. Art historian Cornelius Vermeule considered the Elgin coin among the most outstanding American commemoratives. Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgin,_Illinois,_Centennial_half_dollar> _______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries: 1554: Jesuit missionaries José de Anchieta and Manoel da Nóbrega established a mission at São Paulo dos Campos de Piratininga, which grew to become São Paulo, Brazil. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A3o_Paulo> 1704: English colonists from the Province of Carolina and their native allies began a series of brutal raids against a largely pacific population of Apalachee in Spanish Florida. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apalachee_massacre> 1949: The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences presented the first Emmy Awards to honor excellence in the American television industry. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmy_Award> 1971: Idi Amin Dada seized power in a military coup d'état from President Milton Obote, beginning eight years of military rule in Uganda. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idi_Amin> 2004: Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity (artist's impression pictured) landed on Mars and rolled into Eagle crater, a small crater on the Meridiani Planum. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opportunity_(rover)> _____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day: lose face: (idiomatic) To lose the respect of others; to be humiliated or experience public disgrace. <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/lose_face> ___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:    Nothing in the world is permanent, and we're foolish when we ask anything to last, but surely we're still more foolish not to take delight in it while we have it. If change is of the essence of existence one would have thought it only sensible to make it the premise of our philosophy.   --W. Somerset Maugham <https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/W._Somerset_Maugham>