A bill for a commemorative half dollar honoring the opening of the Bay Bridge was

introduced in the United States Senate by Hiram Johnson of California on April 10,
1936. Other than referring the bill to the Committee on Banking and Currency, the
Senate took no action on the bill that day;[9] it was busy with the impeachment
trial of federal judge Halsted L. Ritter of Florida.[10] The Banking Committee
reported back on the bill with a favorable recommendation, suggesting that the
minimum number of coins to be drawn at any one time be increased from 5,000 to
25,000. The Senate considered six commemorative coin bills in a row on June 1,
1936. Four, including the Bay Bridge bill, passed without any discussion; two were
deferred until later.[11]

A bill for a commemorative coin honoring the opening of the new bridges in the San
Francisco Bay Area (including the Golden Gate Bridge) was introduced in the House
of Representatives by Albert E. Carter of California on April 21, 1936. It was
referred to the Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures.[12] John Cochran of
Missouri reported that bill back on April 23, with a recommendation that it pass;
[13] he brought the bill to the House floor on May 27, 1936. Robert F. Rich of
Pennsylvania, a Republican, noted that this was about the 35th coinage bill to come
forward that year and suggested that "we place on the one side of this coin the
face of Mr. Farley, Democratic National Committeeman; then turn the coin over and
place on the other side of it the face of Mr. Farley, the New York city
committeeman; then when you flop coins you will always have the head of Farley".
[14] Nevertheless, Rich did not object and the House passed the bill without
further debate.[15]

On June 18, Cochran informed the House that each body had passed a different bill
for the California bridge celebrations and asked that the Senate bill be
considered. It was passed without debate, and the House bill was laid on the table.
[16] The Senate bill for 200,000 commemorative half dollars in honor of the Bay
Bridge opening became law with the signature of President Franklin D. Roosevelt on
June 26, 1936.[17] A separate bill was introduced for a coin to honor the
construction of the Golden Gate Bridge, but it failed to pass.[18]

Preparation

A grizzly bear
According to numismatic author Don Taxay, preparations for the coin must have begun
soon after the authorization was signed, for on July 20, 1936, Franck R. Havenner,
the chair of the San Francisco Citizen's Celebration Committee, wrote to Assistant
Director of the Mint Mary M. O'Reilly. Havenner had some procedural questions, sent
information on the selected artist for the coin, Jacques Schnier, and enclosed
photographs of the chosen design. These were sent to the Commission of Fine Arts
(CFA),[19] responsible under a 1921 executive order by President Warren G. Harding
for rendering advisory opinions on public artworks, including coins.[20] On July
31, the CFA chair, Charles Moore, wrote to Havenner relaying the suggestion of the
CFA's sculptor-member, Lee Lawrie, that the lettering in the design be made larger.
[21]

After the required plaster models of the proposed coin were completed, the CFA met
on September 15 to consider photographs of them. Moore sent a letter to O'Reilly,
stating that the bear's nose was unlike that of a grizzly, and supplied images for
Schnier's use in revising it. On the original designs, the mottoes E PLURIBUS UNUM
and IN GOD WE TRUST flanked the bear to left and right: one member of the CFA, John
M. Howells did not like the positioning of the latter. Correspondence among the
various parties followed, since it was uncertain where it could be moved to.
Eventually, Havenner telegraphed to the Mint noting that some previous
commemoratives had excluded either E PLURIBUS UNUM or LIBERTY and proposing that E
PLURIBUS UNUM be omitted and IN GOD WE TRUST moved to the left of the bear in its
place. O'Reilly accepted this; Schnier modified his designs, and approval from the
CFA and the Treasury Department soon followed.[22] Schnier's models were reduced to
coin-sized hubs by the Medallic Art Company of New York.[23]

Design
According to numismatic writers Anthony Swiatek and Walter Breen, "it is a matter
of guesswork which side should be called the obverse. We follow tradition like
[Arlie] Slabaugh and [Don] Taxay and list the side with the bear".[24] There was
criticism of the grizzly bear design at the time of release, for it was stated that
the bear used as model was Monarch II, who lived 26 years in a cage in Golden Gate
Park, objectors argued that such a bear was no fit symbol for Liberty, the word
that appears at its feet.[24] Q. David Bowers, in his volume on commemoratives,
contends that the bear was a composite of several animals seen by Schnier at the
San Francisco and Oakland zoos.[25] Taxay noted that the grizzly bear is commonly
used by artists to represent California, and that Schnier's was "an unusually
successful treatment".[26] The four stars seen, one to the left and three to the
right of the animal, lack symbolic meaning and were not present on Schnier's
original sketch of the obverse.[27] The mint mark S for the San Francisco Mint
flanks the bear on the left, with the artist's initials JS on its right.[24]