To commemorate the opening of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, Congress authorized the issue of 200,000 commemorative Bay Bridge Silver Half-Dollars in June 1936. Built at a cost of $77 million, the construction of the Bay Bridge in the 1930s still ranks as one of the greatest engineering feats of the 20th century. The bridge is actually a series of bridges that form an 8-mile long double-deck span across San Francisco Bay to connect the cities of San Francisco and Oakland. Before it was completed in November 1936, ferries were the only means of crossing between the cities.

Designed by Bay Area-artist Jacques Schnier, the obverse of the Bay Bridge Silver Half-Dollar depicts the state emblem of California, the grizzly bear. The model for this design was Monarch II, a famous attraction of the zoo at Golden gate Park. On the coin’s reverse, the Bay Bridge stretches from San Francisco toward Yerba Buena island (shown covered with pine trees) and continues faintly into the distance to Oakland and Berkeley. The Oakland-Berkeley hills are shown in the background. San Francisco’s famous Ferry Tower appears in the design’s foreground, while two ships are shown steaming toward the bridge.

Of the authorized 200,000 mintage, only half was struck at the San Francisco Mint. Out of that edition, 28,576 coins went unsold and were returned to the mint for melting. The 1936 Bay Bridge Silver Half-Dollar coins we have are beautiful examples of the San Francisco Mint’s renowned technical capabilities and each gleaming coin is in About Uncirculated condition.