PUBLIC—NO. 790—74TH CONGRESS
H.R. 12799
June 24, 1936
An Act To authorize the coinage of 50-cent pieces in commemoration of the three hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Sir Walter Raleigh’s colony on Roanoke Island, North Carolina, known in history as the Lost Colony, and the birth of Virginia Dare, the first child of English parentage to be born on the American continent.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That in commemoration of the three hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Sir Walter Raleigh’s colony on Roanoke Island, North Carolina, known in history as the Lost Colony, and the birth of Virginia Dare, the first child of English parentage to be born on the American continent, there shall be coined at a mint of the United States to be designated by the Director of the Mint not less than twenty-five thousand silver 50-cent pieces of standard size, weight, and composition and of a specially prepared design to be fixed by the Director of the Mint, with the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, but the United States shall not be subject to the expense of making the necessary dies and other preparations for this coinage.
SEC. 2. The coins herein authorized shall bear the date 1937, irrespective of the year in which they are minted or issued, shall be legal tender in any payment to the amount of their face value, and shall be issued only upon the request of the Roanoke Colony Memorial Association of Manteo, North Carolina, upon payment by it of the par value of such coins, but not less than twenty-five thousand such coins shall be issued to it at any one time, and no such coins shall be issued after July 1, 1937. Such coins may be disposed of at par or at a premium by the Roanoke Colony Memorial Association of Manteo, North Carolina, and the net proceeds shall be used by it in defraying the expenses incidental and appropriate to the commemoration of such event.
SEC. 3. All laws now in force relating to the subsidiary silver coins of the United States and the coining or striking of the same, regulating and guarding the process of coinage, providing for the purchase of material, and for the transportation, distribution, and redemption of coins, for the prevention of debasement or counterfeiting, for the security of the coins, or for any other purposes, whether such laws are penal or otherwise, shall, so far as applicable, apply to the coinage herein authorized.
Approved, June 24, 1936.