Descending date follow the lead

@Coins4Eli 4Eli,

An 1802 Half Cent, C-1! Congratulations!

 

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So we're on 1801 (I think)...

 

1803.

 

I like the rim cud on the large cent

 

Calling all 1801's! lol

Let's see some dollars! yeah baby.

 

1801 Dime, 1801 Half Dollar, 1801 Dollar.

 

So what are these?

I wish all would add a short description of the coin...maybe some interesting fact, etc. Maybe denomination?

 

So what are these?

I wish all would add a short description of the coin...maybe some interesting fact, etc. Maybe denomination?

I agree. Have added the respective denominations to my post.

 

During this era, coins were traded by their weight or “tail.” There were early U.S. coins that had values on them. The early dollars had “one hundred cents, one dollar or unit” around the edge. The half dollars had “fifty cents of half a dollar” on the edge. Sadly, slabs have often made this feature unavailable to collectors. The 1796-7 half dollars “1/2” below the wreath on the reverse. The 1804 - 7 quarters had “25 C” on the bottom of the reverse. John Reich added denominations to his designs, and it continued from then on.

The English coins I collect are the same way.

 

Here is a very late die state of the 1801 half dime. This piece is under graded as an EF-45. The TPG are going by the missing design details, which were never there.



The obverse die is broken from above the "T" in "LIBERTY" through Ms. Liberty's forehead and down to her bust.

Here is an earlier die state of the same variety.



Where did the big arking die break in from on the state go you might ask? It's still then on the first piece, but very faintly. The whole obverse die shifted downward when the second crack occurred. The break now barely strikes up on the coin.

BTW, this is not my coin. It has been damaged by an album slide, sadly.

 

Here's the nudge. This 1800 half dime is graded MS-64. It's the highest grade early U.S. coin I have. It came from Sarasota Rare Coin. They often seem to turn nice coins from the people in the area, which is shall we say "well off."



This is the 1800 LM-1 variety. It is the most common 1800 variety and the most common variety among the 1800 to 1805 Draped Bust, Large Eagle half dimes.

It is fully struck, which is unusual for this type. The 1800 half dime is the only piece that comes this way with any frequency. Having said that, the population of fully struck pieces is about 20.

The 1800 half dime is the second most common date in the series. The most common date is the 1795.

 

Calling @lordmarcovan

 

On to the 1700s!
Here is my 1799 S-189.

 

Here is my 1798 S-148 TDS. This is my favorite 1798 in my collection. My pictures dont to it justice.

 

1797 ... One of my favorite years.

That year the mint experimented with having the number stars on the obverse equal the number states in the union. They learned that things were getting too crowded and ultimately went back to 13 stars. There were 15, 16 and then 13 stars on coins. The only coin that had all three at one point was the half dime.

The years started with 15 stars on the obverse of the 1797 half dime. You will note that the two "7"s in the date are the same size. This indicates that the sinker punched them at the same time.



The addition of Tennessee to the union in 1796 brought the total to 16 and another star. There are two varieties of the the 16 star 1797 half dime.



Note that the second "7" is larger than the first. This indicates that the die was made with the date "179_". When it was brought into service the last "7" was added. It is too large for the coin which met that it was probably supposed to be used on perhaps the dime.

Here is the second 1797, 16 star variety.



The obverse die is the same, but the reverse die has a larger eagle, which strikes up much better than the previous two coins. I bought this piece because it was so sharp. It's unusual to see an early half dime with this much detail. I believe that it was net graded from AU-58 to AU-53 because the scratch on Ms. Liberty's neck.

If you could look at this coin with a 20X glass, you can see that the die sinker made hash marks around the edge before he punched the stars into the surface of the die.

Here is the 13 star coin. This variety is quite scarce with probably less than 50 examples known. In this case both of the "7"s are larger than the other two digits in the date.



Needless to say this a tough group of coins to find. It took me over 30 years to put this set together. This is all four of the known 1797 half dime varieties.