1889 So-Called Dollar HK-615, Fayetteville Centennial

Coin Details

Description

HK-615 is a 1889 so-called dollar commemorating Fayetteville Centennial in North Carolina. The centennial movement in America gained momentum after the 1876 national Centennial in Philadelphia, inspiring communities large and small to mark their own 100th anniversaries with locally produced commemorative medals and tokens. Struck in bronze, this piece combines durability with an attractive warm tone that deepens with age into a rich chocolate-brown patina. Bronze was the preferred composition for many commemorative medals due to its excellent detail retention. The production of commemorative medals in America supported a network of skilled engravers, die sinkers, and press operators whose craft combined artistic sensibility with industrial precision. The HK numbering system established by Hibler and Kappen in 1963 brought order to hundreds of previously uncataloged American commemorative medals, many of which had been ignored by mainstream numismatic references. Local commemorative medals from before 1900 reflect an era when American communities were actively shaping their civic identities, with medal production serving as both celebration and assertion of permanence.

Rarity Notes

Local commemorative so-called dollars from the Gilded Age survive in varying quantities. Examples of HK-615 are scarce in the numismatic market.

Cross References

HK-615; PCGS #643077