1928 Oregon Trail Half Dollar PCGS MS66. Nice subtle toning on this attractive Oregon Trail Commem. Presently in a PCGS "Old Green Holder" which seem to have a collector base of it's own. This 1928 Oregon Trail half dollar is graded MS-66 by PCGS. The coin is presently in an Old Green Holder. This coin features beautiful gleaming surfaces with some areas of light toning as well as very sharp devices. With a mintage of just over 6,000 pieces, this coin is exceedingly rare in such a great state of preservation. This is a very high quality coin that conjures up visions of the hardships that the pioneers faced on the Oregon Trail.

The Oregon Trail was much more than a pathway to the state of Oregon; it was the only practical corridor to the entire western United States. The places we now know as Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Idaho and Utah would probably not be a part of the United States today were it not for the Oregon Trail. That's because the Trail was the only feasible way for settlers to get across the mountains. The journey west on the Oregon Trail was exceptionally difficult by today's standards. One in 10 died along the way; many walked the entire two-thousand miles barefoot. The common misperception is that Native Americans were the emigrant's biggest problem en route. Quite the contrary, most native tribes were quite helpful to the emigrants. The real enemies of the pioneers were cholera, poor sanitation and--surprisingly--accidental gunshots.

In 1926, the New York based Oregon Trail Memorial Association, Inc. petitioned Congress to authorize a half dollar to "commemorate the heroism of our fathers and mothers who traversed the Oregon Trail to the far West with great hardship, daring, and loss of life, which not only resulted in adding new states to the Union, but earned a well-deserved and imperishable fame for the pioneers."

The President of the Association, Ezra Meeker, who made the journey along the Oregon Trail in 1851, superficially sought to use the funds raised by the half dollar to erect memorials along the Trail. Later events would prove that the promoters of the half dollar had a little more than unbridled greed on their minds. Congress, however, was apparently satisfied that the commemoration was of national significance. On May 17, 1926, Congress passed legislation authorizing the coining of "no more than six million" coins and the Oregon Trail commemorative half dollar was born.

The Oregon Trail half dollar was completed by James Earle Fraser and his wife, Laura Gardin Fraser. Mrs. Fraser had designed several commemorative coins, notably the 1922 Grant half dollar and dollar, and her husband, who is credited with the obverse design of the Oregon Trail half, is remembered for creating one of the most memorable of all modern coin designs, the Buffalo nickel.