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. Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Diamond_Jubilee_half_dollar> _______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries: 1493: Ottoman Empire forces defeated the Croatian army at the Battle of Krbava Field. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Krbava_Field> 1936: Opposed to António de Oliveira Salazar's support of the Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War, the crews of the Portuguese Navy ships NRP Afonso de Albuquerque and Dão mutinied while anchored in Lisbon harbour. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1936_Naval_Revolt_(Portugal)> 1954: The 6.7 Mw Chlef earthquake struck Algeria, leaving at least 1,243 people dead and 5,000 injured, and forced the government to implement comprehensive reforms in building codes. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1954_Chlef_earthquake> 1969: Allegheny Airlines Flight 853 collided in mid-air with a Piper PA-28 Cherokee flown by a student pilot near Fairland, Indiana, U.S., destroying both planes and killing all 83 occupants. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegheny_Airlines_Flight_853> 1971: John Lennon's solo album Imagine was released. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagine_(John_Lennon_album)> _____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day: reinvent the wheel: (idiomatic) To do work unnecessarily when it has already been done satisfactorily by others; to attempt to devise a solution to a problem when a solution already exists. <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/reinvent_the_wheel> ___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:   Even after killing ninety nine tigers the Maharaja should beware of the hundredth.   --Kalki Krishnamurthy <https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kalki_Krishnamurthy>