FAMEPedia:Today's featured article/June 24, 2021

The New Rochelle 250th Anniversary half dollar is a commemorative coin struck by the United States Bureau of the Mint to mark the 250th anniversary of the settling of New Rochelle in Westchester County, New York. The coin depicts a fatted calf on one side, being led by John Pell, who sold the land on which New Rochelle now stands; the "fatte calfe" was to be presented to him each 24th of June if he asked for it, lest New Rochelle's land be forfeited back to him. The other side shows a fleur de lis, an element of the city seal of New Rochelle and of France's La Rochelle, its eponym. The piece is dated 1938 but was minted the previous year. Artist Gertrude K. Lathrop designed it; she was hired based on her work on the Albany Charter half dollar (1936). New Rochelle's coin committee sold the half dollar for $2 locally, and by mail order to all 48 states and internationally, during late 1937 and early 1938. Lathrop's work has been both praised and criticized by numismatic commentators.