1925 50c Fort Vancouver PR

The 1925 Vancouver half dollar commemorates the 100th anniversary of the founding of Fort Vancouver in Washington state. The coin was designed by Laura Gardin Fraser and showcases on its obverse a side portrait of John McLoughlin, who built Fort Vancouver on the Columbia River in 1825. The reverse shows a buckskin-clad settler handling a musket, with Fort Vancouver and a mountainous scene anchoring the background. The coin was sold for $1 each.

The coin sold nearly 15,000 pieces -- a relatively strong showing for a coin of rather regional interest. Many are known in circulated grades, but the majority of pieces encountered in the marketplace are in uncirculated grades ranging from MS63 to MS66. Examples grading MS67 or higher are quite scarce.