The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge half dollar is a fifty-cent piece
struck by the United States Bureau of the Mint in 1936 as a
commemorative coin. One of many commemoratives issued that year, it was
designed by Jacques Schnier and honors the opening of the Bay Bridge
that November. One side of the coin depicts a grizzly bear, a symbol of
California, and the other shows the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge,
with the Ferry Building. Congress passed authorizing legislation for the
coin in 1936. Schnier's models were approved and the coins were struck
at the San Francisco Mint. Just over 70,000 coins were sold, by mail, in
person, and from booths at the Bay Bridge's approaches, making it the
first commemorative coin to be sold on a drive-in basis. The coins were
taken off sale in February 1937, with the unsold remainder returned to
the Mint for redemption and melting. The Bay Bridge half dollar catalogs
in the low hundreds of dollars, depending on condition..
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Mint>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1438:
Nine leaders of the Transylvanian peasant revolt were executed
at Torda.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transylvanian_peasant_revolt>
1920:
The signing of the Treaty of Tartu ended the Estonian War of
Independence, with Russia agreeing to recognize the independence of
Estonia and renounce in perpetuity all rights to its territory.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Tartu_%28Russian%E2%80%93Estonian%29>
1934:
The Export–Import Bank of the United States (seal pictured),
the country's official export credit agency, was established.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Export%E2%80%93Import_Bank_of_the_United_States>
2007:
Following a Derby di Sicilia match in Catania, football
violence caused the death of police officer Filippo Raciti, leading to
new safety regulations at Italian sporting events.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Catania_football_violence>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
Imbolc:
(Britain, Ireland) A Gaelic and Wiccan festival celebrated on 1 or 2
February which marks the beginning of spring.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Imbolc>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Pity is the feeling which arrests the mind in the presence of
whatsoever is grave and constant in human sufferings and unites it with
the sufferer. Terror is the feeling which arrests the mind in the
presence of whatsoever is grave and constant in human sufferings and
unites it with the secret cause.
--A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Portrait_of_the_Artist_as_a_Young_Man>
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