90% silver

10% copper

12 Grams

Mintage 5,000,000

In 1890, Congress passed legislation giving federal sponsorship to an exposition to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the first voyage of Christopher Columbus to the New World.^[1] The act had established a World's Columbian Exposition Commission to oversee the fair. Leading citizens of Chicago established a World's Columbian Exposition Company ("the Company") to organize the construction, and the Company generally emerged as successful in the resulting infighting as to which group would be in charge. Had it not been for Daniel Burnham, head of the company's Board of Architects, the fair might never have been built. Burnham, whose favorite saying was, "Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood", became the czar of the exposition's construction.^[1]