Popularly known as the San Diego half dollar, this issue commemorates not that city but the exposition held there during the years 1935 and 1936. The sole purpose of this coin was to raise funds for the exposition. Accomplished Sculptor Robert Aitken was commissioned to design and sculpt this coin. Numismatists have traditionally considered the obverse of this issue to be the side portraying the Roman goddess Minerva seated on a grizzly bear, a cornucopia and a shield bearing a gorgon’s head and the motto EUREKA (I’ve found it!). The reverse of this coin depicts two of the California Buildings at the exposition: the Chapel of St. Francis (with dome) and the California Tower.
