1840 (O) 50C Medium Letters MS(PCGS#6233)

August 2011 Chicago ANA - Rarities Night

拍卖行

Stack's Bowers

批号

7004

等级

MS62

价格

51,421

详细说明

1840 (O) Seated Liberty Half Dollar. Medium Letters (a.k.a. Reverse of 1838). WB-101. MS-62 (PCGS). CAC. A frosty and impressive coin for the specialist that shows strong luster and a good strike. The surfaces have light handling marks and a few scuffs, but these blend into the fields and devices and none are particularly detracting. The strike is quite sharp on all devices, despite considerable radial die cracks on the reverse, which are seen on all survivors from these dies. Identifiable by a shallow reeding mark below the eagle's beak. All seen have radial reverse die cracks as this reverse die was first shipped in 1838 to New Orleans, then carried over and finally used for&nbsp;coinage in 1840. And this is where the story begins, for you see in 1838 the half dollars coined in New Orleans <em>had an obverse mintmark</em>. Hence, there was no "O" on the reverse for the branch mint identification as was current in 1838. The obverse die shows considerable die rust on Liberty, and was later paired with an updated reverse die with small letters but included a mintmark on that side. Discovered by Bill Bugert and Randy Wiley who extensively have studied this series and confirmed when the same obverse die used to strike this coin was also used to coin 1840-O half dollars <em>with a reverse mintmark.&nbsp;</em>So, although there is no mintmark on this coin, all seen from these dies were indeed coined at the New Orleans Mint. Perhaps a dozen mint state examples survived of this issue, which will no doubt continue to gain in popularity as this incredible story of the branch mint coin without a mintmark continues to grow in fame.