You are eligible!

You are eligible!

The first attempt at European settlement in what is now Delaware occurred in 1631 near Lewes;[5] the incipient colony was destroyed by Native Americans of the Lenape and Nanticoke tribes.[6] The Swedes tried in 1638 with two ships, the Kalmar Nyckel and the Fogel Grip, an expedition commanded by Peter Minuit, famed for his purchase of Manhattan Island but later dismissed by the Dutch. They settled at the present site of Wilmington. The colony of New Sweden, established to profit from the fur trade, was on land claimed by the Dutch in New Jersey and the English in Maryland; the conflict over the next years was primarily with the latter. Intermittent warfare ended with the arrival of an overwhelming Dutch fleet in 1655. In 1664, though, the English conquered New Netherland, the Dutch possessions in the Middle Atlantic states, and in 1682, Delaware was granted to William Penn, the new proprietor of Pennsylvania.[5] Delaware became one of the original Thirteen Colonies, and, in 1787, was the first state to ratify the Constitution.[7] Until 1954, the entire mintage of each commemorative coin issues issue was sold by the government at face value to a group named by Congress in authorizing legislation, who then tried to sell the coins at a profit to the public. The new pieces then entered the secondary market, and in early 1936 all earlier commemoratives sold at a premium to their issue prices. The apparent easy profits to be made by purchasing and holding commemoratives attracted many to the coin collecting hobby, where they sought to purchase the new issues. The growing market for such pieces led to many commemorative coin proposals in Congress, to mark anniversaries and benefit (it was hoped) worthy causes.[8] Unlike other commemoratives of the time, the reason for minting the Delaware half doll