1807-1839 Capped Bust Half Dollars
The 1839 Capped Bust Half Dollar with small letters on the reverse (Buy on eBay) is an extremely rare transitional variety, which was discovered in 1972. Only ten examples are believed to exist, with only one example known in mint state. The variety is identified by the lettering on the reverse, which is taller, thinner, […]
Proof Capped Bust Half Dollars are extremely rare with most dates represented by only a few examples and some dates with no proofs known to exist. Among these rare proof issues, the most famous is the Proof 1838-O Capped Bust Half Dollar (Buy on eBay). At this time proofs were not standard issues from branch […]
In 1836, steam-powered presses were introduced at the Philadelphia Mint. Coins would be produced using a close collar, which struck the obverse, reverse, and edge at the same time. This new technology resulted in coins that were generally of higher quality and more standardized. The half dollar was the first denomination produced using the new […]
The 1817/4 Capped Bust Half Dollar (Buy on eBay) is an extremely rare and valuable variety with only eleven examples known to exist. All known examples are found in circulated grades. It was common practice for the early Mint to reuse old dies by changing the last digit of the date. For the production of […]
The mintages for Capped Bust Half Dollars were relatively high, with figures exceeding the one million mark for most issues. Only a select few dates are considered to be rare, such as the 1815/2 with a mintage of 47,150 and the 1836 Reeded Edge with an estimated mintage of only 1,200. The highest mintage occurred […]