2017-03-09 Thu

A special Act for commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Basketball Hall of Fame was reintroduced to the US House of Representatives on 27th February 2017.

The non-profit organisation - Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame was founded in 1959 to support professional and amateur players all over the world. It was named after the Canadian physical education teacher James Naismith. He invented basketball in Springfield, Massachusetts on 21st December 1891. 50,000 gold coins with a face value of $5, made of 8.359 gms of 90% pure gold can be minted. 400,000 silver dollar coins made of 26.73 gms of at least 90% pure silver can be minted. 750,000 clad half dollars weighing 11.34 gms can be minted.

The legal tender coins will be available in Uncirculated and Proof versions. They will be minted for 1 year starting 1st January 2019.

Following the success of the 2014 National Baseball Hall of Fame commemorative coin series, the three new coins will also be dome shaped. A public design competition will be held to choose the common obverse. All designs should represent the game of basketball.

Treasury Secretary will choose the winning design. The Council of Fine Arts (CFA) and the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee (CCAC) will be consulted for selecting finalists and semi-finalists. The winner will get a cash prize of at least $5,000.

The common reverse will feature a basketball along with other inscriptions like LIBERTY, IN GOD WE TRUST, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, E PLURIBUS UNUM, the face value of the coin and the year 2019. An additional surcharge will be applied while selling the coins, all of which will be donated to the Basketball Hall of Fame.