1922 Grant Memorial Half Dollar

The story behind this coin

The Grant Memorial Association sold these coins to support memorial projects at Grant’s birthplace and boyhood home in Ohio. Buyers could choose the normal half dollar or a deliberately created star-in-field version. That added symbol generated extra collector demand and remains a recognized regular issue variety.

Design and symbolism

The Grant Memorial Half Dollar marked 100 years since Ulysses S. Grant's birth on April 27, 1822. Congress authorized the issue in 1922 not simply as a portrait tribute, but as a fundraiser tied to Grant's Ohio beginnings. Proceeds were intended to help build memorial community buildings in Georgetown and Bethel and construct a five-mile Grant Memorial Road from New Richmond to his birthplace at Point Pleasant.

Sculptor Laura Gardin Fraser designed both sides. Her obverse gives Grant a forceful right-facing military profile, surrounded by his name and the centennial dates 1822–1922. The reverse shifts away from battlefield fame and presidential office to the modest birthplace associated with his earliest years, framed by trees and a fence. That contrast—national figure on one side, humble Ohio origin on the other—is what gives the design its story.

Regular issues and mintages

The figures in this 1922 Grant Memorial Half Dollar table report the regular collector issues shown for this commemorative. Where sponsors returned unsold coins for melting, the listed quantity reflects net distribution rather than the larger number initially struck.