Vietnam "POW-Missing in Action" US Half Dollar Commemorative Coin

This commemorative coin honors American prisoners of war and those missing in action during the Vietnam War, spanning the years 1962 to 1975, and features the iconic POW/MIA emblem on its face alongside a genuine United States half dollar reverse. The emblem itself was created in 1972 by Newt Heisley, a World War II veteran and commercial artist, who was approached by the National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia to design a symbol representing the growing concern over unaccounted for American service members. Heisley modeled the somber, downcast silhouette after his own son, who had fallen ill while preparing to serve in the Marine Corps, giving the image a deeply personal origin behind its now widely recognized design.

The emblem depicts the silhouette of a prisoner set against a guard tower and a strand of barbed wire, framed by the words "POW*MIA" above and "You Are Not Forgotten" below, rendered in stark black and white. Congress officially recognized the design in 1990 as the nation's symbol of concern for Americans still unaccounted for in Southeast Asia, and the flag bearing this emblem became the only flag other than the American flag ever flown over the White House, first raised there in 1982 and permanently installed in the U.S. Capitol rotunda in 1989.