1986 Heroes of Texas – Lone Star State Silver Round

MintUnknown Mint

IssuerColonial Coins (Houston TX)

DistributorColonial Coins (Houston TX)

CollectionThe Lone Star State Collection

A collage of six men, each labeled by surname: CROCKETT (fur cap, upper left), BOWIE (standing, knife in hand, center), AUSTIN (upper right), TRAVIS (lower left), LAMAR (center, wide hat), and HOUSTON (lower right). Between them: a Texas flag, a ruined mission facade with a flag, a field cannon, a rider on a rise, a cactus, a longhorn on a pedestal, an oil derrick, and a Texas outline with stars. Legends: "TEXAS" across the top, "SESQUICENTENNIAL" along the bottom, "1836" at left and "1986" at right, with a ring of stars around the rim.

"THE LONE STAR STATE" arches across the top above an outline of Texas bearing the word "TEXAS," with small stars scattered inside it. Below read ".999 FINE SILVER" and "ONE TROY OUNCE," with a ring of stars around the rim.

1986 Heroes of Texas – Lone Star State Silver Round Overview

1986 Heroes of Texas – Lone Star State Silver Round is a one-ounce .999 fine silver round made for the 150th anniversary of Texas independence, with six men crowded onto its obverse and each one named on the coin: CROCKETT, BOWIE, AUSTIN, TRAVIS, LAMAR, and HOUSTON. It is the Heroes of Texas design of The Lone Star State Collection, a six-design 1986 series sold through Colonial Coins, Inc. of Houston. Three of the six died in the same assault on one morning in San Antonio. The other three spent the next quarter century running the country that came out of it.

The three who died were at the Alamo. William Barret Travis commanded there and was killed early in the assault on March 6, 1836, by a single bullet in the head, according to the Handbook of Texas. James Bowie had joined Stephen F. Austin’s volunteer army in October 1835, fought at Concepción, and led the Grass Fight. In February 1836 the volunteers elected him commander, sharing authority with Travis, but on February 24 he collapsed from an illness the Handbook says was probably advanced tuberculosis, and he was shot several times in the head while lying on his cot, as the Handbook entry on Bowie records. The same entry traces the knife that carries his name to the 1827 Sandbar Fight near Natchez, where he used a “big butcher knife.” The coin shows him standing with a blade in his hand.

David Crockett had a stranger road to the same wall. He won a seat in the U.S. House in 1827, lost it in 1831, won it back in 1833, and lost it again in 1835 by 252 votes. At a farewell gathering in Memphis he told the crowd, “since you have chosen to elect a man with a timber toe to succeed me, you may all go to hell and I will go to Texas,” and the Handbook entry on Crockett says he was not yet planning to fight for independence when he left. He reached Nacogdoches by January 5, 1836, and San Antonio in early February, and he was posted at the low stockade in front of the Alamo church, the most vulnerable point in the line. How he died is not settled. The Handbook says it is almost impossible to determine, notes that the account of his capture and execution attributed to Lt. José Enrique de la Peña is not an eyewitness account, and cites Susanna Dickinson’s statement that he died outside, among the first to fall.

Stephen F. Austin never saw the Alamo fall in person. He had settled the first 300 families of Anglo-American Texas under the 1823 colonization law, then spent most of 1834 in Mexican prisons without charge after being arrested at Saltillo. He commanded volunteers at Gonzales and San Antonio in the first weeks of the war and was sent to the United States as a commissioner in November 1835. In September 1836 he reluctantly ran for president and lost to Sam Houston. He accepted the post of secretary of state from the man who beat him and died in office on December 27, 1836, at age forty-three, according to the Handbook of Texas. Seventeen days earlier, on December 10, Houston had approved the Republic’s first star seal, a story told in the entry for the Lone Star design of this series.

Houston and Mirabeau B. Lamar are the two who finished the story. At San Jacinto on April 21, 1836, Houston led the Texian army to victory in the afternoon, with his horse Saracen shot under him and a severe wound above the ankle, as the Handbook entry on Houston records. Lamar had arrived at Groce’s Point as a private and was verbally commissioned a colonel just before the fight, in command of the cavalry. Houston served as the Republic’s president from October 22, 1836, to December 10, 1838, with Lamar elected vice president, and Lamar was inaugurated on December 10, 1838. He reversed Houston’s conciliatory Indian policy, the Cherokees were driven to Arkansas in 1839, and the Handbook entry on Lamar credits him with the January 26, 1839 act setting aside public land for schools and two universities, which earned him the title “Father of Texas Education.” Houston came back for a second term, December 12, 1841, to December 9, 1844, and was elected governor in 1859. In 1861 he refused the oath of loyalty to the Confederacy and the Texas convention removed him from office on March 16. He died in Huntsville on July 26, 1863.

The round puts all six on one face. The names are the only labels on the coin besides “TEXAS,” “SESQUICENTENNIAL,” and the dates 1836 and 1986. Around and between the portraits are a Texas flag, the ruined facade of a mission with a flag above it, a field cannon, a rider on a rise, a cactus, a longhorn on a pedestal, an oil derrick, and an outline of Texas with stars scattered across it. The reverse, shared by all six silver designs in the series, reads “THE LONE STAR STATE” above a Texas outline. No source located so far says why these six men were chosen or who drew the design.

1986 Heroes of Texas – Lone Star State Silver Round Attribution

The year is struck on the obverse, in the dates 1836 and 1986 flanking “SESQUICENTENNIAL,” so no dating attribution is needed.

The round carries no mint mark or maker’s name. Manufacturer/Mint is recorded as Unknown. Issuer and Distributor are attributed to Colonial Coins, Inc.: a period Colonial Coin World advertisement lists the Lone Star State line, including the “Hero” design in 1 oz silver, as Colonial’s product. No Certificate of Authenticity or original packaging has been tied to this example, so the attribution rests on the advertisement and is attributed, not confirmed.

1986 Heroes of Texas – Lone Star State Silver Round Notes

• Heroes of Texas is one of two designs in the series that were also made as a 10 oz bar and a 3 oz belt buckle; Lone Star is the other. This entry covers the plain 1 oz silver round only.
• Serialized examples of this design exist, numbered on a smooth band within the reeded edge. Each serialized round will have its own entry.
• The reverse is shared with the other five silver obverses of The Lone Star State Collection.
• Mintage is not documented.

1986 Heroes of Texas – Lone Star State Silver Round References

• William Barret Travis, Handbook of Texas, Texas State Historical Association
• James Bowie, Handbook of Texas, Texas State Historical Association
• David Crockett, Handbook of Texas, Texas State Historical Association
• Stephen Fuller Austin, Handbook of Texas, Texas State Historical Association
• Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar, Handbook of Texas, Texas State Historical Association
• Sam Houston, Handbook of Texas, Texas State Historical Association
• Colonial Coins, Inc., period Coin World advertisement listing the Lone Star State designs and formats
• 1986 Lone Star – Lone Star State Silver Round, The Texas Stacker
• The Lone Star State Collection, The Texas Stacker
• Colonial Coins, Inc. (Houston, TX), The Texas Stacker
• Documented example examined (this entry)
• Texas Stacker Archives

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