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mation exists on the preparation of the coinage designs for the York County half dollar. The Committee for the Commemoration of the Founding of York County, in charge of making the arrangements for the half dollar, chose Portland artist Walter H. Rich to create the designs. He based the obverse, which depicts Brown's Garrison, on a sketch published in the book The Proprietors of Saco (1931) by Frank C. Deering, and the reverse on the seal of York County. Numismatic author Don Taxay suggested that the Commission of Fine Arts (CFA), to whom Rich's designs were submitted, was overworked with the many commemorative coins authorized in 1936, and could devote only scant attention to the York County piece. The commission was charged by a 1921 executive order by President Warren G. Harding with rendering advisory opinions on public artworks, including coins. On July 24, 1936, the CFA's secretary, H.R. Caemmerer, wrote to Assistant Director of the Mint Mary M. O'Reilly that the CFA had met with Rich a week earlier and had approved the designs on condition slight changes to the style of the lettering were made. On August 1, the Boston Advertiser reported that final approval had been made by Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau. The sculpting for the coin's design was done by G. S. Pacetti Company of Boston, in brass rather than the usual plaster, while the dies were reduced from the models by New York City's Medallic Art Company. According to Nichols, this was the first time models had been made in brass for a U.S. coin, and provoked much favorable comment. Design As Rich's designs were sculpted in metal rather than the usual plaster, the design has an unusually flat relief more reminiscent of later (late 20th century onward) designs. The obverse depicts the area of the first European settlement in Maine, with Brown's Garrison, the Saco River and four sentries before the fort, with one of them mounted . This made the York County half dollar the third U.S. coin to depict a horse, after the Lafayette dollar (dated 1900) and the Stone Mountain Memorial half dollar (1925). Beyond the fort is the rising sun, and amid the rays is the word LIBERTY; below the fort is seen the motto E PLURIBUS UNUM. Around the design are seen the name of the issuing nation and the coin's denomination. On the reverse, the presence of a cross in the York County seal makes this half dollar one of only two U.S. coins (with the 1934 Maryland Tercentenary half dollar) to depict a cross as part of the design. The pine tree in the shield's upper left symbolizes the state of Maine. The anniversary dates are to either side of the shield, with IN GOD WE TRUST below it and YORK COUNTY FIRST COUNTY IN MAINE surrounding the shield. W.H.R., the desig