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Message:: [QUOTE="johnmilton, post: 7878105, member: 101855"]Since you called it out .... [ATTACH=full]1358260[/ATTACH] The mintage for this issue was originally 1,500 for Thomas Jefferson, mid July, from his $75 worth of Spanish silver dollars. There was an additional 200 to 300 made at the first U.S. mint in the fall. The disme is much rarer and out of my league. I think that this was a regular issue. The mintage is too high to be a pattern. Furthermore George Washington called this "a small beginning" in coinage in his annual report to Congress. There is something like 20 Mint State examples known out of a surviving population of 325 or so. I was "bitten by the bug" with early half dimes when I was in my 20s. I got the crazy of idea of building a complete Red Book collection of the half dimes from 1792 to 1805. It was a crazy idea because all of these coins are scarce and expensive. The 1795 half dime is the most common date. I now have them all, including the 1803 Small 8 variety of which only about 25 are known. Here is a 1794 and a 1797 13 star variety. Although it's hard know it from the Red Book listings, the 1797, 13 star is a rare coin with perhaps 50 examples known. [ATTACH=full]1358261[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]1358262[/ATTACH] 1797 13 star [ATTACH=full]1358263[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]1358264[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]