1968 HemisFair Silver – 250th Anniversary of San Antonio, Texas

MintUnited States Mint

IssuerSan Antonio Fair, Inc. (San Antonio, TX)

DistributorSan Antonio Fair, Inc. (San Antonio, TX)

A raised hand holding the HemisFair emblem, the symbol of the fair's theme of cultures meeting in the Americas. The legend reads "HEMISFAIR 68."

A dove with outspread wings carrying a ribbon in its feet, above the legend "250th ANNIVERSARY SAN ANTONIO TEXAS." A small "P" mint mark identifies the Philadelphia Mint.

1968 San Antonio HemisFair Silver Medal Overview

The 1968 San Antonio HemisFair Medal is a national commemorative medal struck by the United States Mint at Philadelphia under an act of Congress, honoring the 250th anniversary of the founding of San Antonio and the world’s fair the city staged to celebrate it, HemisFair ’68. It is one of the few Texas subjects ever struck at a federal mint under a dedicated act of Congress, and it was designed by a San Antonio sculptor.

The anniversary it marks reaches back to the spring of 1718, when Spanish Franciscan Fray Antonio de Olivares founded Mission San Antonio de Valero on the San Antonio River and Governor Martín de Alarcón established the Presidio San Antonio de Béxar nearby to protect it. The mission later became known as the Alamo, and the settlement that grew between mission and presidio became the city of San Antonio. By the 1960s that frontier outpost was one of the largest cities in Texas, and its civic leaders wanted the 250th anniversary to announce a modern city to the world.

Their answer was HemisFair ’68, an international exposition built on a 96-acre site at the southeastern edge of downtown and organized by a not-for-profit corporation, San Antonio Fair, Inc. The Bureau International des Expositions granted HemisFair official world’s fair status on November 17, 1965, and the fair ran from April 6 to October 6, 1968 under the theme “The Confluence of Civilizations in the Americas,” celebrating the many cultures that shaped San Antonio and the hemisphere around it (HemisFair ’68, Wikipedia). More than six million visitors came through the gates. The fair lost money, but it remade downtown San Antonio and left behind the 750-foot Tower of the Americas, the Convention Center and theater complex, the Institute of Texan Cultures, and what is now Hemisfair Park (BIE, Hemisfair 1968). Texas even stamped “HemisFair” on every 1968 state license plate to promote it.

The medal came out of that same push. In 1965 Congress took up H.R. 7526, a bill directing the Treasury to strike national medals for San Antonio Fair, Inc., and on March 31, 1966 President Lyndon B. Johnson signed it into law as Public Law 89-382, with Senator Ralph Yarborough and San Antonio Representative Henry B. González at his side. Johnson had his own tie to the city: he and Lady Bird Johnson were married in San Antonio in 1934, a point he made in his signing remarks, along with his confidence that the medal foretold a successful fair (The American Presidency Project). The act let the fair corporation choose the medal’s sizes, metals, and designs with Treasury approval, capped production at 100,000 pieces, and required the corporation to pay the Mint’s costs before delivery (Public Law 89-382).

For the design, the fair turned to Philip John Evett, an English-born sculptor who came to the United States in 1954 and joined the art faculty of San Antonio’s Trinity University in 1960 (Medal Artists, Evett). Evett built the obverse around the fair itself: a hand raised to hold the HemisFair emblem, the symbol the exposition used to stand for its theme of cultures meeting in the Americas, with “HEMISFAIR 68” as the legend. The reverse turns to the anniversary, with a dove carrying a ribbon in its feet above “250th ANNIVERSARY SAN ANTONIO TEXAS.” The dove fits both the celebration and the fair’s message of hemispheric friendship, and the pairing lets one medal speak for both the fair and the city’s 250th birthday.

The Philadelphia Mint struck the medal in .900 fine silver at 33 mm, and in a matching bronze version, with the “P” mint mark on both. Some of the silver medals carry an incuse serial number on the plain edge, while others were issued with the edge left blank.

1968 San Antonio HemisFair Silver Medal Attribution

The medal’s year is struck in the obverse legend, “HEMISFAIR 68,” and is confirmed by the authorizing act and the fair’s 1968 dates, so the year is not an attribution. Manufacturer is the United States Mint, Philadelphia, established by the struck “P” mint mark and by Public Law 89-382, which directed the Secretary of the Treasury to strike the medals. Issuer and distributor are San Antonio Fair, Inc.: the act directed the Mint to strike and furnish the medals for the corporation, which chose the design, paid for the striking, and took delivery for sale. Designer is Philip John Evett, per the national commemorative medal catalogs of Dean (D1968-1) and Swoger (41).

1968 San Antonio HemisFair Silver Medal Notes

• Catalogued as Dean 1968-1 and Swoger 41; the silver is Swoger 41B and the bronze Swoger 41C. Numista N# 21317 (silver, Dean 1968-1b).
• Silver mintage is given by Numista as 13,320; this figure has not been confirmed against Mint records.
• A bronze 33 mm version was struck from the same design with the “P” mint mark; it is not covered by this entry.
• Silver medals are known both with and without an incuse serial number on the edge.
• A separate 1968 silver medal showing the HemisFair and San Antonio’s 250th anniversary was issued by local San Antonio coin clubs for the 10th Texas Numismatic Association convention and struck by Cajun Coins of Mandeville, Louisiana. It is a different medal from this U.S. Mint issue.

1968 San Antonio HemisFair Silver Medal References

• Public Law 89-382, 80 Stat. 98 (March 31, 1966)
• The American Presidency Project, “Remarks Upon Signing Bill Authorizing Medals Commemorating the 250th Anniversary of the Founding of San Antonio” (March 31, 1966)
• House Report 89-1136 (Oct. 11, 1965) and Senate Report 89-1072 (Mar. 15, 1966), Committee on Banking and Currency, to accompany H.R. 7526
• Medal Artists, “Evett, Philip John”
• John T. Dean, National Commemorative Medals of the United States Mint: An Illustrated Catalog (2012), D1968-1
• William Swoger, National Commemorative Medals of the United States Since 1873 (2008), no. 41, pp. 136–137
• Numista, “Hemisfair 68 250th Anniversary (San Antonio, Texas),” N# 21317
• NGC Collectors Society, Hemisfair / San Antonio 250th Anniversary Silver (Swoger 41B)
• Coin World, “Origins of 1968 Texas medals”
• BIE, “1968 San Antonio”
• HemisFair ’68, Wikipedia
• United States Mint, The Texas Stacker
• Documented example examined (this entry)
• Texas Stacker Archives

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