1/2 Dollar Monroe Doctrine Centennial

Congress authorized this commemorative in 1923 to mark the centennial of President Monroe's 1823 annual message to Congress, in which he declared the Western Hemisphere closed to further European colonization. The timing was politically pointed — the U.S. had spent the preceding decade intervening in Nicaragua, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic under the Roosevelt Corollary, and the centennial gave the Monroe Doctrine a celebratory veneer at a moment when its application had become deeply controversial in Latin America.

The entire authorized mintage of 274,077 pieces was struck at San Francisco. Most were sold in pairs with a cardboard holder, which is why so many survivors show identical edge nicks from that packaging.