Lot 2208

Cleaned and lightly hairlined with very light heather surfaces. A small band of surface roughness is visible in an arc at right obverse.

With this lot begins the remarkable collection of Capped Bust half dollars formed by Russell J. Logan. This collection is very nearly complete by die marriage, including 443 out of a possible 450 die combinations listed in Early Half Dollar Die Varieties 1794-1836 (Third edition) and also including two of the three Crushed Lettered Edge varieties not actually listed in the Overton reference. In addition, there are several highly important die states and a number of fascinating errors. The total collection includes 574 coins in a like number of lots.

The coinage of 1807 Capped Bust half dollars consisted of four die marriages from four obverse and three reverse dies. Total mintage is estimated at 750,500 coins. Three major variations are included among the four die varieties, with all of these varieties included in a like number of lots in this offering.

All of the die cracks for Overton-111b are present, however, some are obscured by wear. The late die state crack described for this die state, across the eye, curls, headband to cap over E, is visible faintly within the letter E and above. No discernable die cracks are visible on the reverse.

The Capped Bust coinage of 1807 represents the first appearance of this new design on any silver coin. John Reich joined the Mint engraving department as assistant engraver on April 1, 1807. He immediately started the task of preparing new designs for all denominations of our coinage. The half dollar and half eagle were the first to be completed, both being struck in this very first year. A signature of Reich's engraving may be found on the lower right star. This star is nearly always seen with a scalloped or notched ray, usually oriented toward the border. It is believed that Reich had this star punch specially prepared, and used it as his identification mark. With only one exception, the scalloped star punch disappears on dies beginning in 1817, the year he left the Mint. The very first Capped Bust obverse die in the emission sequence for this year's coinage, that of O-113, does not have this scalloped star while each of the other three obverse dies utilized this special punch. Perhaps the obverse die of O-113 was Reich's very first half dollar die, prepared before the special star punch had been created.

Ivan Leaman and Donald Gunnet, two serious students of the early half dollars, examined the edge lettering of thousands of Capped Bust half dollars. During the course of their study, they identified 275 distinctly different edge dies for the series along with 20 others used for the early half dollars from 1795 through 1807. During the course of their study, they also examined countless edge errors, and explained how these might have occurred through improper use of the Castaing machine. The results of their study, "Early Half Dollar Edges and Die Sequences," was published in the 1986 volume for the American Numismatic Society's Coinage of the Americas Conference. America's Silver Coinage, 1794-1891 is an extremely important volume for the student of early silver coinage. The final result of their extensive excersize is a proposed emission sequence that combined obverse, reverse, and edge die linkages. For each year in the following offering, we have included the emission sequence proposed by these authors.

Leaman/Gunnet Emission Sequence for 1807 Capped Bust half dollars: O-113, 114, 111, 112.