Mercury Dimes 1916-1945 Coin

Despite its tiny amount, the "Mercury" dime may very well be the most exquisite coin ever created by the United States Mint. It is extremely remarkable that a coin this small could have such an elaborate and aesthetically lovely target.

One thing its objective does not describe, however, is Mercury, the courier of the gods in Roman mythology. The study on its facade is actually that of Liberty irksome a winged cap symbolizing abandon of thought. Thus, the coin more correctly is known as the Winged Head Liberty dime. Nevertheless the misnomer "Mercury" was applied to it early on and, after the existence of communal custom, has stuck.

Whatever it's called, this dime represented an embrace change of tempo when it made its first appearance in 1916. Indeed, it implied more than excellent of thought: it also was an image of America's new character, exuberance reflected in the novelty and vitality of the new U.S. penny as a total in the early 1900s. The coin it replaced, the starchy Barber dime, was rooted in the 19th century, a time when American life was more rigid and prim. In an artistic sense this new coin was a breath of cool air, even however its inspiration went all the way back to the primeval Greeks and Romans.

Clearly, the Mint and Treasury supposed it time for a change. Under an 1890 law, they couldn't restore a coin motif more frequently than every 25 existence. The Barber dime, lodge and half money, first produced in 1892, reached the part-century smear in 1916, and the Mint wasted no time in replacing all three. Actually, his misinterpretation of the 1890 law led Mint Director Robert W. Woolley to judge that he must reinstate the presented designs when they reached 25 being of production.

The Mint began laying the groundwork in the last days of 1915, when it set the rostrum for an unusual competition to gain new designs for the coins. Director Woolley invited three imminent sculptors-Hermon A. MacNeil, Albin Polasek and Adolph A. Weinman, all New York City-to make designs for the three silver coins, evidently to awarding a different coin to each artiste.

Whatever the Mint's intention may have been, Weinman broken up receiving two of the three coins-the dime and half cash-with MacNeil getting the lodge dough and Polasek being shut out. Nevertheless few would quibble with the selections, for all three of the new coins-the Mercury dime, the Standing Liberty house money and the Walking Liberty half dough-inevitably happen on most collectors' lists of the finest U.S. coins ever made.

The German-natural Weinman had come to the United States in 1880 at the age of 10 and had willful under the infamous Augustus Saint-Gaudens. By 1915 he had gained a reputation as one of the populace's leading babyish sculptors. Weinman solidified this permanent with his artwork for the dime.

Its generally thought that the Winged Liberty portrait is based on a bust that Weinman did in 1913 of Elsie Kachel Stevens, wife of well-known versifier Wallace Stevens. She and her husband were tenants at the time in a New York City residence house owned by the sculptor. The transpose of the coin depicts the fasces, an ancient figure of persuade, with a crusade-ax atop it to epitomize preparedness and a lime separate beside it to denote the covet for harmony. With World War I powerful in Europe, these were emotional themes in 1916.

Release of the very first Mercury dimes was delayed pending recent in the year, as the dies were not yet swift. Coins of the old Barber point were hurriedly coined to gather the demand. The Denver Minted made only 264,000 examples of the new dimes, and 1916-D has been the great key of the chain ever since-the only coin with a mintage below one million. The mintmark appears on the inverse, below and left of the fasces. Other scarce coins enter 1921, 1921-D and the 1942/1 overdates from both Philadelphia and Denver. Brilliant proofs were made from 1936 through 1942, and there exists at slightest one 1916 dull resilient.

Collectors with a weakness for perfection entreat Mercury dimes with "filled split bands," completely obvious ranks in the bands around the fasces. For most dates these order significantly elevated premiums than coins lacking such describe. Lack of filled bands doesn't mean a coin mint-position; often, it plainly denotes a weak punch. The bands do wait as a checkpoint for corrosion, however, since they're so high and exposed. Other spots to confirm are Liberty's coat and the area in front of her ear.

For most of the string, production at the fork mints in Denver and San Francisco was minus than ten million pieces a year. Outputs were advanced at the focal mint in Philadelphia but exceeded 100 million only five epoch. Large facts of Mercury dimes subsist in grades up to Mint State-65, and they're quickly untaken even in MS-66 and 67, at least for the later dates. This, joint with their beauty, makes them very promotable. Facing 77 time-and-mint combinations, not counting the overdates, many collectors pleased themselves with just a distinct lettering coin. Others assemble "sharply sets" from 1934 through 1945 or 1941 through `45.

The Mercury dime served Americans well during one of this land's most violent eras. Born on the eve of our nation's note into World War I, it remained a central part of America's money place right through the end of World War II, bowing out in 1945. Along the way, it took pivot theater during the Great Depression as the claim coin in the down-and-outers' anthem, "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" The desire of Mint Director Nellie Tayloe Ross to switch the Mercury dime with portraying Benjamin Franklin in 1938 was delayed awaiting after the war, Franklin eventually finding a home on the half buck ten being later.

In 1946, following the casualty of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a new devise with a portrait of the former President was issued. It was proper that this denomination was chosen to perpetuate his recall, as during his lifetime he was a significant influence in the March of Dimes battle against polio.

Even in its finishing years, this was a coin with authentic buying right. Armed with a Mercury dime, youngsters in the1940s had their choice of a 52-page comic book, a double-dip ice cream funnel, two Hershey bars or two bottles of Coca-Cola. Remaining in circulation right awaiting the end of silver coinage, Mercury dimes were a known glimpse as behind as the 1960s.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Diameter: 17.9 millimeters Weight: 2.50 grams Composition: .900 silver.100 copper Edge: Reeded Net Weight: .07234 degree unmixed silver

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Breen, Walter, Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins, F.C.I. Press/Doubleday, New York, 1988. Lange, David W. The Complete Guide to Mercury Dimes, DLRC Press, Virginia Beach, VA, 1993. Taxay, Don, The U.S. Mint and Coinage, Arco Publishing Co., New York, 1966. Vermeule, Cornelius, Numismatic Art in America, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1971. Yeoman, R.S., A Guide Book of United States Coins, 47th Edition. Western Publishing Co., Racine, WI, 1993.

Coin Information Provided Courtesy NGC.

Barber Dimes 1892-1916 Coin

As early as 1879, municipal dissatisfaction with the Seated Liberty proposal was heard in Washington and Philadelphia. It was felt by many that the realm's coin designs were back-tariff, but few could have predicted how mundane a change could actually be. New mint engravers submitted designs throughout the early 1880s, but the only outcome was the production of a new nickel in 1883 intended by Chief Engraver Charles Barber. In 1891, when there was much discussion of a communal competition for new designs for the dime, district money and half cash, Barber reported to Mint Director James Kimball that there was no one in the country who was clever of helping him in preparing primary designs.

This same egoism was also found in one of the principal sculptors of the day, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, who confided to the Mint Director that there were only four men in the world competent to do such a redesigning: three were in France, and he was the fourth. Kimball insisted that very than unfilled abroad to find the best fabricate talent available, it would be viable to find able designers in America. To that end a panel of ten of the leading artists and sculptors of the day was commissioned to guess which would be the best designs for the new currency. Rather than make any decisions about a topic competition, the panel instead discarded the language of the competition as future by Mint officials on the basis that the preparation time for plaster models was too dumpy and the monetary compensation too trifling.

The Mint Director discarded the panel's suggestions and threw the competition open to the shared. The outcome of a shared competition were likewise discouraging. Of the more than 300 drawings submitted, only two were accorded a good remark by a four-associate panel appointed by Kimball (it should be imminent that one of the panel members was Charles Barber).

Kimball's successor to the mint directorship was Edward O. Leech. The latter was well awake of the evils Director Kimball had encountered annoying to get new coin designs. Leech avoided what he termed the "wretched letdown" of committees and public discussion all together by modestly directing the chief engraver to draw new designs which, of course, is what Barber hunted all along.

What Barber did was to temper the large journey worn on the Morgan dollar by adding a Liberty cap and cropping Liberty's wool shorter in back. He then sited his initial B on the truncation of the shaft. The converse uses almost the same wreath used on the Seated Liberty dime of 1860-91.

What Barber did accomplish with his new dime, while, was to draft and place into production a coin that would endure the salient requirements of complex, high-alacrity coin presses. As a Mint employee he was acutely sentient of the penury for coins to be planned so they would assault up with one drive from the coin plead. His mistrust to outsiders was, no doubt, due in part to distrust, but in all fairness he did understand the testing specifications necessary to achieve millions of coins for commercial purposes.

The first Barber dimes were struck on January 2, 1892. Over half a billion pieces were struck during the next twenty-five time. Some issues have mintages as small as 500,000 (such as 1895-O, 1901-S and 1913-S), while others were struck in quantities as large as 22 million (1907-P). At one time or another four mints struck these coins, and the mintmark of Denver (D), San Francisco (S) and New Orleans (O) can be found on the junior transpose below the loop in the bow (there being no mintmark for coins struck in Philadelphia).

Barber dimes are, for the most part, a completeable set of coins with no significant court or mintmark rarities, excluding for the legendary 1894-S. The low relief sketched confident that most coins would be sharply struck, excluding for a few issues from New Orleans (known for weak strikes over the decades). This necessary of any great effect rarities in the Barber chain stands in downright compare to the next sequence, Adolph Weinman's "Mercury" blueprint, where squishy stunning facts make that chain such a challenge.

There is one great shortage in the Barber dime string, one of the rarest coins in all U.S. numismatics-the 1894-S dime. Allegedly, 24 pieces were struck on orders from San Francisco Mint Superintendent J. Daggett. Only ten specimens can be accounted for today, which presents one of the great numismatic mysteries of the earlier hundred days: Where are the other fourteen 1894-S dimes that were reportedly struck? All the known 1894-S dimes proofs, and all were struck from the same set of dies. Much has been written on this fascinating shortage over the time, and there are many interesting stories and theories about these coins. Undoubtedly the best known untruth is that Superintendent Daggett gave three of the coins to his daughter Hallie and told her to keep them pending she was as old as he was, when they would be worth a lot of money. On her way home from the mint, she useless one of the dimes on a dish of ice cream. Today that coin is known as the "Ice Cream Specimen." The other two she kept and lastly sold in the 1950s.

Grading Barber dimes are a relatively unadorned handle. On high grade coins, signs of circulation will first seem on Liberty's cheek and in the fields. For a coin to be uncirculated, all the mint patina must be outfitted and steady over both sides.

Proofs were struck in each year excluding 1916, and the only overhang find in this series is the 1893/2 overdate. The 1894-S dime is the only number to have been counterfeited in any appreciable records. Dangerous forgeries have been made by shifting the mintmark on an 1894-O or adding one to a Philadelphia coin. Others were made in the mid-1970s in The Philippines.

The series is regularly cool by beginners in Good to Very Good grades, while more advanced collectors choose mint territory and testimony examples. Recently, however, collectors have showed a renewed profit in this and the other Barber series in XF and AU grades. Several issues of these intermediate grade coins are extremely challenging to locate. Curiously, some issues are more demanding to locate in snag-unbound XF or AU than in mint condition due to the signpost of original BU rolls.

Barber dimes are also very common with typeface collectors, especially in high grades. Because the series spans both the 19th and 20th centuries, anyone attempting to absolute a typeface set from the century will need an example.

While the Barber dime may require the artistic earn that designs before, and after displayed, this class, with its distinctive 19th century motif, has remained a favorite with collectors over the decades.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Diameter: 17.9 millimeters Weight: 2.50 grams Composition: .900 silver.100 copper Edge: Reeded Net Weight: 0.0723 ounce wholesome silver

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Breen, Walter, Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins, F.C.I. Press/Doubleday, New York, 1988. Lawrence, David, The Complete Guide to Barber Dimes, DLRC Press,Virginia Beach, VA, 1991. Taxay, Don, The U.S. Mint and Coinage, Arco Publishing, New York, 1966.

Coin Information Provided Courtesy NGC.

Standing Liberty Quarter Dollars 1916-1930 Coin

The year was 1916. World I was wild in Europe, and the next climate in the United States was definitely guarded. Nine days before, President Theodore Roosevelt had started using classical propose motifs for our gold coins, and now, as the Coinage Act of 1890 had authorized, it time to change the trifling silver coins. U.S. Mint Chief Engraver Charles Barber's "uninspired" propose had patent the lodge, dime and half money for the preceding district century, and the civic was prime for something different. It was the wonderful opportunity to question a coin that, as a contemporary government describe put it, "was intended to exemplify in an assess the start pursuit of the country to it's own protection."

Thus, the Standing Liberty house was untaught. As was the lawsuit with the other new money, a competition was detained to cliquey the drawing. The comedian chosen was a prominent sculptor of the day, Hermon Atkins MacNeil, who was known for his works dealing with Indians and American memoirs, particularly on communal buildings and monuments.

MacNeil's facade projected skin a lasting, front spectacle of Liberty, a rendering reminiscent of obsolete Greek carving. Her left arm is upraised, bearing a buffer in a posture of protection. Being fraught from the protect by her right hand is the hangings, while the same hand offers up an emerald division. A sundry memo surely, but one that told our European neighbors we were ready for something, war or stillness. The inscription LIBERTY is at the top of the obverse, the time below, with the motto IN GOD WE TRUST closest the presume of Liberty.

The reversal of this typeface, as mandated by law, depicts an American eagle, here shown in rounded journey. The legend UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and motto E PLURIBUS UNUM are above, while the denomination QUARTER DOLLAR is below. The decisive effect seems to consider the induce of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, who was the most famed sculptor of the time and, sometime former, a teacher for Mr. MacNeil.

The first coins came off the presses December 16, 1916, and the string nonstop through 1930, during which time over 226 million coins were struck at three different mints: Philadelphia (no mintmark), San Francisco (S), and Denver (D). The mintmark can be found just to the left of the meeting, while the designer's early M is to the right. No coins were struck in 1922, and no proofs were authorized, still several satin-finish proofs of 1916 and 1917 are reported to subsist.

There are two foremost subtypes of the Standing Liberty section, Type 1 and Type 2. Type 1 was issued for only two being, 1916-1917, as there was some trouble over Liberty's bared breast. In 1917, the fabricate was adapted, and the offending item was from then on covered with group post. Type 2, issued from 1917 through 1930, was substantially reworked, but the most evident changes were the repositioning of the stars on the setback along with the sequence dispatch on Miss Liberty mentioned past. Other, excluding evident changes included a smoothing of the fields and a pronounced curvature to the dies. Both Type 1 and Type 2 quarters were twisted by all three mints during 1917.

The obverse also underwent a minor change start with the penny of 1925, which some consider a subtype. The time was one of the elevated skin on previous coins so that it wore off too speedily. Circulating quarters of the 1917-24 stage are consequently scarce with legible dates. To remedy this maintain, the year section was recessed for all extend penny.

As one of our most lovely coin designs, the Standing Liberty billet is very current with collectors nowadays. The cycle is cool in its entirety by year and mint or as part of a 20th Century category set. Unlike many other string, it is still promising to perfect a done set in uncirculated prepare-a worthy treasure that very few people will have the pleasure of owning.

One of the key dates for the cycle is the problem square 1916. With a mintage of only 52,000 pieces, it has always been hunted by collectors. However, it does survive in superior figures than one would demand. As with any new goal, both collectors and the universal free saved plentiful examples. Original rolls, though pricey, were still presented as dead as the 1950s.

The rarest Standing Liberty housed is a Type 2 concern, the famous 1918/7-S overdate. Creating when two differently dated hubs were worn to prepare a solitary obverse die, the slip was not discovered by numismatists pending several days later, long after most of the coins had entered circulation. This coined is bloody in all grades, but especially so in the superior ranges of mint state. The mintage guessed for this interesting variety is nameless, but obviously miniscule. For days, one saw many otherwise full sets that lacked only the overdate. It's factually one of the most wanted aerial coins of the 20th Century.

Other excluding atypical but still challenging dates in high grade are 1920-S, 1926-S and the toughest court to find with an insincere struck precede on the Liberty presume, 1927-S. No coins in this string can actually be called common in gem proviso, but 1917 Type 1 and 1930 quarters grow in detailed-move gem uncirculated rider most frequently. Many other issues are periodically vacant in gem proviso, but not very regularly with a detailed move.

When grading this design, the points to inspect deftly on the obverse are Liberty's right knee and the pivot of the shield. On the transpose, the eagle's breast and left wing will first show erode. Coins graded "stuffed cranium" are much scarcer than those without this attribute copious struck, but this classification has more to do with the eminence of the effect than with grade. To modify for this designation, the coin must exhibit the following three skin: three leaves in Liberty's beard must be quite visible, the hairline along Liberty's crest must be complete and the ear indentation must be evident. Collectors will pay substantially more for these fully struck specimens.

Only in production for fifteen living, the Standing Liberty house was to endure an early demise. 1932 obvious the 200th anniversary of George Washington's birth, and a new billet dough featuring his picture was introduced as a circulating commemorative. Though no longer made in silver for circulation, the Washington sector is still being minted today.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Diameter: 24.3 millimeters Weight: 6.25 grams Composition: .900 silver.100 copper Edge: Reeded Net Weight: .18084 degree unmixed silver

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Bowers, Q. David, United States Dimes, Quarters and Half Dollars, Bowers and Merena Galleries, Wolfeboro, NH, 1986. Breen, Walter, Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins, F.C.I./Doubleday, New York, 1988. Cline, J.H., Standing Liberty Quarters, 3rd Edition, J.H. Cline, Palm Harbor, FL, 1997. Vermeule, Cornelius, Numismatic Art in America, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1971.

Coin Information Provided Courtesy NGC.

Barber Half Dollars 1892-1915 Coin

Telephone examined began between New York and Chicago. Also in Chicago, 30-year-old soap salesclerk William Wrigley ongoing selling chewing gum instead. The Coca-Cola Company was orderly in Atlanta, and the first pneumatic exhaust was sham.

The year was 1892, and new beginnings seemed to be the order of the day. That was the folder in United States penny, as well. Three new silver coins entered circulation that year. Sometimes identified as the Liberty Head half cash, area and dime, they're more regularly referred to by the name of their designer: U.S. Mint chief sculptor-engraver Charles E. Barber.

The fractional silver coins were long overdue for a facelift. All had conceded the Seated Liberty likeness for more than half a century, and while it's constant that life was more leisurely back then, the stride of change in this task was downright cool. The Mint had little incentive to change the designs of these coins. Only one of the three, the Seated Liberty dime, had been made in the before decade in something approaching average records. New half dollars and quarters were barely struck at all during the 1880s, because the central government had more than enough older coins (some dating back to the late 1840s) stashed away in its vaults to convince communal necessary.

The Mint was not oblivious to the need for new designs. In his yearly describe for 1887, Mint Director James P. Kimball pointedly referred to the "prevalent require for an improvement of the penny in reverence to the bestow designs." Not awaiting 1890 did the inventories of older halves and quarters finally decline to the meaning where habitual production seemed probable to resume, making the time more propitious for giving the silver coins a classify-new look.

In 1890, Kimball protected legal underpinning for the thought of ordinary object change. He prevailed winning Congress to elapse legislation specifying that from that meaning familiar, coin designs could be misused administratively after being in use for a minimum of 25 years. The half cash, lodge and dime were eligible at once, although, in item of detail, the Mint could have untouched them, any time it sought under the banner procedures it had followed in previous living.

The notion intrigued kimball of asset a partial competition to attain new designs for the silver currency. At his urging, in 1890 the Treasury invited ten outstanding artists to acquiesce proposed designs for the half money, sector and dime. Augustus Saint-Gaudens, the citizens's pre-imminent sculptor, headed the roll of invitees.

There's little suspect that the contest would have borne impressive fruit, but before it could instigate the artists got together and drafted a set of provisos lacking which, they insisted, they wouldn't compete. Among other effects, they demanded that each entrant get $100 for each sketch that he submitted and $500 for each complete kind. The Treasury crooked them down and instead conducted a contest open to one and all. This twisted some 300 entries, but nothing deemed usable on the change.

Chief Engraver Barber proved to be the winner in the end. Frustrated by the penniless municipal entries, the Mint crooked to Barber in 1891 to invent the coins, an assignment he had popular all along. Barber came up with akin face artwork for all three coins. It features a right-facing regulate of Liberty with her wool assured up in a cap, a laurel circlet resting along her hairline and a headdress demeanor the incused inscription LIBERTY over her crest. The designer's opening (B) is at the foot of the isthmus. On the half cash and quarter, the motto IN GOD WE TRUST appears above this sketch, the court below and thirteen stars alongside.

The two larger coins also allocate an usual swap propose. It depicts a heraldic eagle with a defend on its breast, an emerald outlet clutched in its right talons and a bundle of arrows in its left talons. Inscriptions on this aspect embrace UNITED STATES OF AMERICA along the top border, the report of price along the floor and E PLURIBUS UNUM on a ribbon detained tightly in the eagle's beak. Thirteen stars are arrayed in the subject above the eagle.

All three Barber silver coins debuted in 1892, and all three had steady, unspectacular careers in the realm's coinage marshal. In the task of the Barber half money, annual production never exceeded six million pieces at any given mint; the highpoint came in 1899, when the major mint in Philadelphia made just a shade over 5.5 million. On the other hand, yearly yield never dropped below 100,000 coins at any one mint. The low point occurred in 1914, when just 124,610 half dollars were struck at Philadelphia. Besides the main mint, Barber halves also were created at the separate mints in New Orleans (O mintmark), San Francisco (S) and Denver (D), with the mintmark located below the eagle's tail. Scarce issues embrace 1892-O, 1892-S, 1893-S, 1896-S, 1901-S, 1904-S and the last three pieces from Philadelphia-1913, 1914 and 1915. However, there are no extremist rarities.

Proofs were bent every year, with mintages ranging from a high of 1,245 in the first year of flow to a low of 380 in 1914, the moment-to-last year of the string. In 1916, the Barber a new half dough replaced coin, the Walking Liberty typeface, and no resistant halves were issued.

Barber half dollars were struck for a compute of 24 existence and in 73 different year-and-mint combinations. Collectors do assemble court-and-mint sets, especially in circulated grades, but in mint chaos this coin is far more regularly calm by letters. Important records subsist in mint state levels up to MS-65, but above that the population is frail. When grading this sketch, the points on the obverse that will first show apparel are the cheek and the curls below LIBERTY; on the back, confirm the eagle's rule and the tips of the tail and wings.

The full yield of Barber half dollars for all 24 time was only about 136 million coins. That's minus than half the number of Kennedy halves struck at the Philadelphia Mint in 1964 lonely, but then Barber halves were better money. Back in 1900, a half dough would have bought a man's shirt or two pairs of suspenders. Money indeed went farther in the "good old days!"

SPECIFICATIONS:

Diameter: 30.6 millimeters Weight: 12.50 grams Composition: .900 silver.100 copper Edge: Reeded Net Weight: .36169 degree natural silver

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Breen, Walter, Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S.and Colonial Coins, F.C.I. Press/Doubleday, New York, 1988. Lawrence, David, The Complete Guide to Barber Halves, DLRC Press,Virginia Beach, VA, 1993. Taxay, Don, The U.S. Mint and Coinage, Arco Publishing Co.,New York, 1966. Vermeule, Cornelius, Numismatic Art in America, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1971. Yeoman, R.S., A Guide Book of United States Coins, 47th Edition, Western Publishing Co., Racine, WI, 1993.

Coin Information Provided Courtesy NGC.

Seated Liberty n With Motto Silver Dollars 1866-1873 Coin

As war clouds gathered and the residents raced impulsive near civil war, known sentiment became increasingly philosophical. In 1861, reflecting this communal mood, Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase detained leading a suggestion from a Pennsylvania minister that the Mint ought to incorporate recognition of the deity on our coins. In a letter to James Pollock, Director of the Mint, Chase wrote: "The hope of our people in God should be stated on our general coins. You will produce a crest to be ready lacking unnecessary falter with a motto expressing in the fewest and tersest terms promising this free recognition."

Almost immediately, Pollock struck a few patterns and forwarded them to Chase. In his accompanying letter, Pollock asserted that the first suggestion for this spiritual motto, "Our Trust is in God," had too many characters to fit comfortably. The Mint Director recommended "God Our Trust" since he felt it accepted the same idea and was more concise. He also chosen the motto to be placed on the back above the eagle, within a scroll or ribbon machine as artistic scenery.

Pattern half dollars and eagles square 1861 and 1862 have the lexis GOD OUR TRUST. From 1863 through 1865, additional patterns were made with GOD OUR TRUST, GOD AND OUR COUNTRY, and IN GOD WE TRUST.

It was IN GOD WE TRUST that Secretary Chase finally usual in 1864. It first appeared on the two-cent part in that year and then later the Shield nickel in 1866. Patterns dated 1865 with IN GOD WE TRUST were made of the twofold eagle, eagle, the eagle and the silver house, half buck and buck. Ultimately, the Mint Act of March 3, 1865 provided the authorization for use of the motto on the usual silver and gold issues.

The Seated Liberty bucked of 1866, alike to earlier issues except for the addition of the motto, was based on the creative devise by Christian Gobrecht, the past Chief Engraver of the Mint. First used on usual announce coins with the 1837 dime, it was practical to the buck in 1840.

The intend depicts Liberty seated on a boulder. She is property a post in her left hand topped with a liberty cap. With her right hand she supports the shelter of the union adorned with the word LIBERTY. Thirteen stars surround the cost. The converse skin an eagle with outstretched wings and the Union armor on its breast. The eagle is covetous an olive stem and three arrows. The legend UNITED STATES OF AMERICA appears in a semicircle around the eagle, and the denomination ONE DOL. Appears below. If a particular coin has a mintmark, it is soon under the eagle.

The conceive has athletic symbolism. With the use of the liberty cap, it declares autonomy. The union shielded is symbolic of the unity of the homeland. In the throes of the nastiest conflagration this country ever experienced, it was physical for the people of the mid-19th century to point to the deity for help and guidance. Placing a religious sentiment on something as intimate as a coin was the equivalent of a national prayer.

The motto has become very much a part of the American mind. This was evident when the double eagle and eagle were issued without the motto in 1907. It caused a burning public controversy, and Congress planned the motto restored in 1908.

Although "With Motto" buck mintages were small, the coins were well used by the public. The accounts for the small number of uncirculated pieces that live. Only about 3.6 million pieces were minted for circulation. The womanhood was made at the Philadelphia Mint with only two domain mints producing the With Motto variety.

Of the Carson City Mint issues of 1870, '71, '72 and '73, the 1870-CC is the easiest to locate. There are also three San Francisco issues. The 1870-S is a foremost scarcity, and the 1873-S, with a reported mintage of 700, is strange in any collection. That foliage the 1872-S as the only collectable With Motto buck from that mint. The Philadelphia issues of 1871 and 1872 are the dates most regularly seen and are popularly composed as mode examples.

There are 15 customary and eight resistant issues of the Seated Liberty With Motto Dollar. An absolute of 6,060 proofs were coined, and these hang over each meeting from 1866 through 1873.

When grading mint pomp pieces, footnote that this coin regularly comes with some parts of the outline softly struck and may have many "bag" letters and abrasions. Check the high points of Liberty's right leg and breast and the pelt above her eye for signs of erode. Seating Liberty dollars may be seen with a great glaze that can array from lightly spotty to black. Heavily toned specimens should be warily evaluated to affect whether evidence of circulation is buried underneath.

Numismatists usually collect this coin as a "form," because it is obstinate to find affordable examples of many dates in this chain. A crucial collection would have an example of the No Motto and With Motto types. One could also enter an exclusive, but obtainable, Gobrecht sample or circulation flow of 1836-1839. Nevertheless no subject which type, grade or date you own, any Seated Liberty cash is a numismatic treasure.

In February, 1873 Congress passed the Coinage Act later known as "The Crime of '73," which effectively demonetized silver and put the populace on a gold ensign. It would fuel intense meditate for the next district century. While the Act created a new trade dough for use in import with the Far East, it abolished the even issue silver dollar, along with the two-cent example, the silver trime and the the dime. The standard silvered dollar would not gain awaiting 1878, when it reappeared with a new design named for its initiator, Chief Engraver George T. Morgan.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Diameter: 38.1 millimeters Weight: 26.73 grams Composition: .900 silver.100 copper Edge: Reeded Net Weight: .77344 oz pure silver

BIBLIOGRAPHY: American Numismatic Association, Selections from The Numismatist: United States Paper Money, Tokens, Medals and Miscellaneous, Whitman Publishing Company, Racine, WI, 1960. Bowers, Q. David, Silver Dollars & Trade Dollars of the United States, A Complete Encyclopedia, Bowers and Merena, Wolfeboro, NH, 1993. Judd, J. Hewitt M.D., United States Pattern, Experimental and Trial Pieces, 7th Edition, A. Kosoff, Western Publishing Co., Racine, WI, 1982. White, Weimar W. The Liberty Seated Dollar 1840-1873, Sanford J. Durst, Long Island City, 1985. Yeoman, R.S., A Guide Book of United States Coins, 47th Edition, Western Publishing Co., Racine, WI, 1993.

Coin Information Provided Courtesy NGC.

Draped Bust n Small Eagle Silver Dollars 1795-1798 Coin Guide

A precocious country during its shaping being, the United States grew swiftly in volume and eminence throughout its first the century as an independent populace. It didn't access adulthood almost as cleansing, however, as the image of Miss Liberty on U. S. Silver change.

When Liberty first appeared on the land's silver coins in 1794 she was childish and chirpy, with her curls flowing freely behind her. Focusing on that mark, collectors submit to these coins as the Flowing Hair class. Nevertheless it didn't take long for this ingenious- looking maiden to make the bursting flower of adulthood: The very next year a new sketch showed her, in the language of currency critic Cornelius Vermeule, as "a buxom Roman matron" having long, elegant fleece neatly together back with a ribbon and a bow and ample cleavage obvious above a fold of drapery.

This rotund-figured portrayal has come to be known as the Draped Bust invent, and it holds a significant distinction: It appears on the facade of the 1804 silver dough, one of the most notorious and most important U.S. coin rarities.

For a time, the Draped Bust likeness graced all five silver coins then being issued: the dough, half cash, quarter, dime and the dime. The money got the spring on all the others, however, receiving this fabricate partway through production in 1795. It didn't make its debut on the other four coins pending 1796.

Selection of the cash as the new originate's first cabinet underscored the dominance of that coin. The dough was the cornerstone of the financial routine devised by the Founding Fathers, and the one-money coin was not only the prime silver number but, in the survey of officials overseeing the Mint, the most prestigious as well as most important. They had made that earn in 1794 when they chose to have dollars struck before something also at the outset of silver penny, only then giving the go-onward for the minor silver pieces.

Replacement of the midstream-lived Flowing Hair project coincided with a change in leadership at the Mint. David Rittenhouse resigned as the Mint's first director at the end of June 1795, and his successor, Henry William DeSaussure, set out at once to recover the designs of all the denominations, particularly those struck in silver.

Possibly at the urging of President George Washington, DeSaussure engaged portraitist Gilbert Stuart to devise a new target for the silver coins. Stuart organized a diagram of the Draped Bust celebrity, reportedly basing the likeness on Philadelphia socialite Ann Willing Bingham, said to be the most stunning lady of her time. This sketch was translated to plaster by dancer John Eckstein of Providence, Rhode Island, and mint executed the dies Chief Engraver Robert Scot.

Though the Flowing Hair picture of Liberty was retired, the Mint kept the back essentially the same. It skinned a small, naturalistic eagle encircled by a wreath, with UNITED STATES OF AMERICA adorned around the border. On the Draped Bust penny, this "Small Eagle" reversal does bare fine refinements: The eagle seems more lissom, for example, and it's balanced ahead a cloud instead of an astound (as had been the instance on the Flowing Hair money). In addition, the wreath has been adapted: The before laurel brushwood have given way to kindling of palm and emerald. LIBERTY and the court are the only inscriptions on the face. Lettering on the perimeter proclaims the receipt of cost: HUNDRED CENTS ONE DOLLAR OR UNIT, with decorations separating the words.

The intact first-year production of Draped Bust silver dollars took place in the last two weeks of October, 1795 and totaled a modest 42,738 pieces. That's barely one-fourth the mintage of 1795 Flowing Hair dollars; some 160,000 of those had been struck formerly. Nonetheless, both types historically have commanded comparable premiums. The Flowing Hair money profited from it's varied grab as a mode coin: That sequence was made for only two being, and the 1794 is a chief find, so the 1795 is the only realistic decision for most buyers.

The Draped Bust/Small Eagle dough didn't last much longer. It remained in production for only four being, from 1795 to 1798, before the small eagle was replaced by a large, heraldic eagle. The Draped Bust studied retained its blackhead on the facade awaiting production of dollars was perched in 1804 because of onerous melting. When dollar coinage resumed in 1836, the facade weary a new Seated Liberty portrait.

Only about 450,000 Draped Bust/Small Eagle dollars were issued in the four living mutual, virtually three fourths of them in 1798. Noting scholar Walter Breen estimated that just 3 percent survive. The low crux came in 1797, when a meager 7,776 were bent. The rarest array is the 1797 dollar with 9 stars to Liberty's left, 7 to her right and small script in the quash legend. The low production facts are understandable, given the truth that during the 1790s a dollar represented a full day's pay for some Americans-and a living wage, at that.

Although the string is small, Draped Bust/Small Eagle dollars come in more than a dozen foremost varieties. Some of these distinctions are based on the dimension of the date and the inscriptions. Most of the varieties, however, are fixed to the number of stars on the frontage and the way they are agreed. There were 15 stars in the first two years, representing the number of states in the Union at the time. With Tennessee's admission, the number rose to 16 in 1797. Then, in 1798, it dropped back to 15 (apparently because old dies were being used) before finish up at 13 for the 13 primary colonies.

The collecting of this string by varieties took a major leap forward with the publication in 1950 of a citation book by Milford H. Bolender. Using his own specialized collection of these coins as a foundation, Bolender described and illustrated each category known to him. After vacant through some editions, his book was extensively revised by Jules Reiver in 1998. Another note by Q. David Bowers, with the assistance of Mark Borckardt, was published in 1993, correcting and updating the Bolender book and assigning a new numbering structure. Thus, the varieties of these dollars are identified by both Bolender (B) figures or Bowers/ Borckardt (BB) facts.

Dollars of this capture are scarce and vastly collectible even in lesser circulated grades and are atypical in mint proviso. Points to buttress for grind are the hair above Liberty's temple and the emblem of the eagle's breast.

Although the series is abruptly, it is commonly serene by brand only because each component is so scarce. Proofs of these coins weren't struck, but a few presentation pieces spectacle prooflike surfaces.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Diameter: 39-40 millimeters Weight: 26.96 grams Composition: .8924 silver.1076 copper Edge: Lettered Net Weight: .77344 ounce downright silver

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Bowers, Q. David, Silver Dollars & Trade Dollars of the United States, A Complete Encyclopedia, Bowers & Merena, Wolfeboro, NH, 1993. Breen, Walter, Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins, F.C.I. Press/Doubleday, New York, 1988. Reiver, Jules, The United States Early Silver Dollars 1794 to 1804, Krause Publications, Iola, WI, 1998. Taxay, Don, The U.S. Mint and Coinage, Arco Publishing Co. Inc., New York, 1966. Yeoman, R.S., A Guide Book of United States Coins, 47th Edition, Western Publishing Co., Racine, WI, 1993.

Coin Information Provided Courtesy NGC.

Walking Liberty Half Dollars 1916-1947

Thomas Woodrow Wilson barely won re-choice as 28th president of the United States, campaigning on the slogan, "He kept us out of war!" Within a few months, American troops would be route for Europe after all. Mack Sennett's Keystone Kops were making millions laugh in the state's film houses, while New York's Wally Pipp home-run ruler in baseball's American League.

The year was 1916, and America was a realm in ferment. It was a time of transition: from steed and pram to horseless carriage ... Farms to cities ... Domestic tranquility to alien entanglement ... Concord to war.

Major changes were taking place in United States money, too. Within the earlier decade, exciting new designs had debuted on six different U.S. coins, supplanting the quiet, dull 19th-century portraits that preceded them. And now, in 1916, three more old-smartness coins-the Barber silver coins-course for the sidelines as well.

Outside artists not on the wand of the U.S. Mint had furnished new designs for the six preceding changes, and Mint Director Robert W. Woolley showed his satisfaction by open scarce again. In 1915, he invited three noted sculptors-Hermon A. MacNeil, Albin Polasek and Adolph A. Weinman, all New York City-to prime designs for the three silver coins, apparently with the intention of awarding a different coin to each artist. The Mint may not have intended it this way, but Weinman useless up receiving two of the three coins, the dime and half cash, with MacNeil receiving the area and Polasek being closed out. It's hard to picture how Polasek or somebody moreover could have improved on the charming entries, although, for all three of the new coins-the Mercury dime, Standing Liberty area and Walking Liberty half money-are magnificent money artworks.

A.A. Weinman was born in Germany but came to the United States at the age of ten in 1880. He honed his skills as a student of the infamous Augustus Saint-Gaudens and, by 1915, he was commonly acclaimed as one of the homeland's finest sculptors.

For the frontage of his intention, Weinman chose a gorged-span numeral of Liberty striding near the dawning of a new day, clad in the Stars and Stripes and hauling twigs of laurel and oak symbolizing civil and military glory. The switch depicts an imposing eagle balanced on a mountain cliff, wings stretched in a pose suggesting right, with a sprout of mountain pine-symbolic of America springing from a schism in the swing. These brightly partisan themes resonated wholly across a state then preparing to record World War I, ironically against the land of Weinman's birth. Weinman placed his initials (AW) speedily under the eagle's tailfeathers.

Unlike the other two Barber coins, the Barber half buck wasn't bent in 1916. Even so, the Mint delayed release of the new Walking Liberty coin pending tardy November. It drew abrupt praise. The New York Sun, for example, pronounced it a "lively" coin, typifying "jostle," while the Boston Herald said it had a "brazen look on its face."

First-year coins from the turn mints in Denver and San Francisco take the "D" or "S" mintmark on the frontage, below IN GOD WE TRUST, as do some pieces minted the next year. Partway through production in 1917, the mintmarks' spot was motivated to the decrease left of the setback, just below the sapling, and that's where it remained pending the cycle defunct in 1947.

Over 485 million Walking Liberty halves were made between 1916 and 1947, but they were issued only sporadically during the 1920s and early '30s, nothing being minted in 1922, 1924-26 and 1930-32. These coins with substantial selling capacity, enough to buy a mooch of bread, a quart of milk and a dozen eggs in the early '30s, so it didn't take titanic quantities to stop Americans' wishes, especially after the Wall Street breakdown plunged the nation into the Great Depression.

Mintages were particularly low in 1921, and the P, D and S half dollars from that year all rank among the chief keys of the sequence. Other scarce issues contain the 1916, 1916-S, 1917-D and S (with the mintmarks on the facade) and 1938-D. Brilliant proofs were minted from 1936 to 1942, adding 74,400 pieces, and a very few satin-polish proofs were struck in 1916 and '17.

"Walkers," as they're frequently called, are large, precious-metal coins with a, much-admired goal. As a result, they presume great allure not only for traditional hobbyists but also for non-collectors. Many subsist in grades up to Mint State-65. Even above that reading, significant figures live for certain dates, particularly the later existence. Most dates, however, come weakly struck, particularly on Liberty's left hand and leg, supervise and skirt outline and on the eagle's breast and leg down. Sharply struck coins often mandate substantial premiums. In an effort to expand the salient characteristics of the figure, chief Engraver George made some lesser modifications T. Morgan in 1918 and again by Assistant Engraver John R. Sinnock in 1937 and 1938. None of the revisions seemed to help, as even later issues are often weak in the principal parts of the motif. Places to stop for carry compose Liberty's regulate, breast, arms and left leg and the breast, leg and forward wing of the eagle.

A stuffed set consists of 65 different time-and-mint combinations but is attempted and completed by many collectors. Although Walkers were not saved in any extent by the shared, particularly in the Depression living, professional numismatists like Wayte Raymond and others put away many early rolls during the '30s. Uncirculated specimens of certain dates in the 1910s and '20s are possibly only vacant today due to the insight of these astute dealers. Later-date Walkers also have a strong following: many collectors assemble "sharp sets" from 1934 to 1947 or 1941 to '47. Type collectors just obtain a distinct, high-grade example.

The Franklin the dollar succeeded the Walker in 1948. Nevertheless 38 years later, in 1986, Uncle Sam dusted off the Weinman create for the obverse of the one-degree American Eagle silver gold coin, which has been minted annually ever since.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Diameter: 30.6 millimeters Weight: 12.50 grams Composition: .900 silver.100 copper Edge: Reeded Net Weight: .36169 little untainted silver

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Breen, Walter, Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins, F.C.I. Press/Doubleday, New York, 1988. Fox, Bruce, The Complete Guide To Walking Liberty Half Dollars, DLRC Press, Virginia Beach, VA, 1993. Taxay, Don, The U.S. Mint and Coinage, Arco Publishing Co., New York, 1966. Vermeule, Cornelius, Numismatic Art in America, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1971. Yeoman, R.S., A Guide Book of United States Coins, 47th Edition. Western Publishing Co., Racine, WI, 1993.

Coin Information Provided Courtesy NGC.

Seated Liberty/No Motto Silver Dollars 1840-1873

The year was 1840. Martin Van Buren was completing a Presidential word ruined by terrible financial depression. This era, called the Hard Times, resulted from time of reckless Western land speculation and the evolution of unregulated banks issuing a flood of unsecured paper money. The prolonged depression ravished America's agriculture and trade and saw hundreds of thousands starving and unemployed.

Inheriting from President Andrew Jackson was the Van Buren Administration's loyalty in "hard money"- silver and gold-as the only unfailing warehouse of assess in compare to shaky thanks and worthless paper money. Expressing this hard money outlook, the Mint strove from 1836 to start a new circulating silver cash. No cash coin had appeared for circulation since 1804, when the last of the 1803-square Draped Bust dollars were released.

Mint Director Robert Maskell Patterson viewed the new money as the pinnacle of America's silver penny. After all, it was a fortunate worker who made even four dollars for a workweek of 76 to 80 hours of unremitting slog in this harsh era. A silver bucked was indeed a keep of wealth to millions of impoverished running-classify Americans.

An admirer of the seated Britannia on British copper penny, Patterson supposed that a seated female character would be just as "emblematic of liberty" as the heads and busts adorning the residents's money. He engaged the great study musician Thomas Sully to make sketching for his seated Liberty. Sully floating her on a sway in Grecian robes, left arm supporting a Union guard with a scroll adorned LIBERTY. Her right arm was raised and detained a staff topped with a small Liberty Cap. The Mint's assistant engraver, Christian Gobrecht, adapted the Sully sketches to bas-relief art fitting for money. The effect was the Seated Liberty create worn at one time or another on half dimes, dimes, 20-cent pieces, quarters, half dollars and dollars from 1836 through 1891.

As reworked by Gobrecht and Robert Ball Hughes, Liberty emerged with a rounded president and her dangling right arm appearing immensely long, her left patently shorter. Pattern obverses of 1836 and 1839 showed no frontage stars but placed the musician's signature in the turf or on the base. Gobrecht's novel reverses of 1836-1839 open a magnificent snatched eagle in a shining or patent sky. Unfortunately, the "No Motto" silver money of 1840-1865 deleted the innovative flying eagle, substituting the unimaginative but relaxed "sandwich lodge" bird with dropped wings and a safeguard on its breast. Liberty had no artist's signature and sat coyly in a crowd of 13 stars with the court placed below. The coins of 1840-65 do not have the motto IN GOD WE TRUST on the converse.

Mintages were commonly small by recent standards, adding only 2,895,673 coins for the cycle. The Philadelphia Minted (no mintmark) struck all dates from 1840 to 1865 inclusive; New Orleans (O), struck dollars square 1846, 1850, 1859 and 1860; the San Francisco Mint (S), struck this category money only in 1859. Mintmarks are located under the lime sphere, between the eagle's feet on the rearrange.

Tiny figures of proofs were struck of most early Philadelphia dates, but they are of great shortage. Numbers struck are not known with certainty and are gone from general handbook books. Proofs were first made for public selling in 1858 when perhaps 80 pieces were struck; later resistant mintages never exceeded 1,000 excluding for 1860, when 1,330 pieces were coined. Proof restrikes were made of the 1851 and 1852 coins. The last No Motto meeting was 1865, with 46,500 company strikes and 500 proofs made. Two 1866-dated No Motto coins are known, but these "fantasy pieces" were made somewhat later for auction to wealthy collectors. In recent years, the reality of a sole resilient 1851-O specimen has come to light, however researchers postulate that this was accidentally made by the Philadelphia "Midnight Minters," (possibly engraver George Eckfeldt and his son, Mint night watchman Theodore). In their swiftness clandestinely to sell the popular 1851 arise, they overstruck a vacant New Orleans Mint cash, the crushed 'O' mintmark still being quietly visible.

Seated dollars never circulated to any great point in the East, although facts were in daily use west of the Mississippi. The Civil War advanced restricted their circulation as the numbers of subject strikes and proofs struck contracted sharply. Bullion buyers snapped up most new silver coins for export as firmly as they were made. These coins were shipped overseas for melting, and the only U.S. Mint result most citizens saw were the new figurine cents. Coin collectors derided the Mint as "Uncle Sam's copperhead factory."

These large silver coins had some odd striking characteristics. The actual view of Liberty's lead may basis feeble detail even on perfect specimens. The fluff on the eagle's leg and the claws may also show mark of weak beat. Wear first appears on Liberty's thigh, right breast and the top of her precede. The tops of the eagle's wings chart. Because of their size and mass, uncirculated coins stored in Mint bags will show scattered link symbols. Proofs regularly are hairlined from the careless conduct of early non-numismatic owners or will show evidence of cleaning by old-time collectors.

Seating Liberty dollars have gained popularity with the utter antenna kinship since the 1970's, when the great U.S. Treasury reserve of silver dollars was liquidated, though few of them early type were found. To collectors more easy with Morgan and Peace dollars issued in the tens of millions, these formerly coins may appear scarce and vague, and indeed they are. Only a small marginal of all Seated Liberty dollars struck remain in existence today. Researcher Weimar W. White estimated that just a division continue-even in low grades.

Assembling an extensive date and mint set in reduce circulated grades is within reason, given patience and perseverance. A total set in mint kingdom will be costly, especially for examples of the 1850-O, 1851, 1852 and 1859-S. A complete run of proofs is a theoretically viable goal but one which will be unrealistic for any but the best-financed antenna.

The Seated Liberty series endless from 1866 to 1873 with the transpose motto IN GOD WE TRUST. The coinage acted of Feb. 12, 1873 ended the silver buck and abolished the official tender condition of all silver dollars struck from 1794 to 1873. This is the law later savagely denounced by the vocal partisans of released and unlimited coinage of silver as the "Crime of '73." Legal tender category was restored to the colors silver dollar under the Bland-Allison Act of 1878, which prompted the coining of millions of Morgan Dollars.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Diameter: 38.1 millimeters Weight: 26.73 grams Composition: .900 silver.100 copper Edge: Reeded Net Weight: .77344 oz untainted silver

BIBLIOGRAPHY Alexander, David T. DeLorey, Thomas K. And Reed, P. Bradley, Coin World Comprehensive Catalog & Encyclopedia of United States Coins, New York, World Almanac-Pharos Books, 1990. Bowers, Q. David, Silver Dollars and Trade Dollars of the United States, Bowers & Merena Galleries, Wolfeboro, NH, 1993. Breen, Walter, Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins, F.C.I. Press/Doubleday, New York, 1988. Vermeule, Cornelius, Numismatic Art in America, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1971. White, Weimar W. The Liberty Seated Dollar 1840-1873, New York, Sanford J. Durst, 1985.

Coin Information Provided Courtesy NGC.

Saint-Gaudens Low-Relief Double Eagles 1907-33

Uniting States change has never been more scenic than it was in the early days of the 20th century. The Buffalo nickel . . . The Mercury dime . . . The Standing Liberty sector . . . The Walking Liberty half buck-these were among the aesthetically stunning coins that made their first appearance and circulated feature by face during that stop.

Fittingly, however, the centerpiece of this "blond age" wasn't a nickel or silver coin, but one made out of gold. The Saint-Gaudens lookalike eagle, or $20 gold example, stands above the place as the song most magnificent coin of this-or any-era in U.S. chronicle.

As the 1900s dawned, Augustus Saint-Gaudens was a towering build in the sphere of American flimsy arts. Widely acclaimed as the affirm's preeminent sculptor, he was also a man of fluency and influence who dominated the art world of his day not only by example but also through the problem of vigor and persuasion.

His brilliance and notoriety brought him to the interest of President Theodore Roosevelt, and the two men developed a convivial relationship that was at once both delicate and professional. In 1905, Saint- Gaudens planned a princely opening medal for the leader. Pleasing and impressed, Roosevelt then invited him to approach prospective new designs for the two chief U.S. gold coins, the bend eagle and eagle, and for a one-cent member (which never reached production). Saint-Gaudens welcomed the challenge and plunged into the task with all his prodigious energy and dexterity.

Both men admired the high-relief money of earliest Greece, and both decided that U.S. gold coins ornate after that sculpt would be a spectacular achievement. They would also pause in bare differ to the two undistinguished-looking coins that were being replaced, the Liberty lookalike eagle and the Coronet eagle, both of which had their roots in the first half of the 19th century.

Although his shape was deteriorating as the work went along, Saint-Gaudens created superb designs for both gold coins. The clone eagle, especially, is a masterpiece. Its frontage skin a chubby-chunk study of Liberty with a torch in her right hand and an emerald split in her left. She is exposed in achieve tramp with waves of sunlight behind her and the U.S. Capitol Building to the left of her flowing gown. Encircling her are 46 stars-one for each confusion in the Union at that time. The coin's overturn depicts a breathtaking eagle in departure, with the sun below extending its energy upward. Above the eagle, in two semicircular tiers, are the inscriptions UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and TWENTY DOLLARS. High points to bill for clothing are Liberty's breast and knee and the eagle's wing.

Saint-Gaudens located another necessary motto, E PLURIBUS UNUM, along the tiptoe of the coin, hence sinking the cover on the facade and swap and reinforcing their orderly, open look. He and Roosevelt conspired to forget IN GOD WE TRUST from the first of the new expand eagles, but God-fearing members of Congress noticed this and mandated addition of this motto on later issues, starting near the end of 1908. On pieces shaped thereafter, it appears above the sun on the switch.

Roosevelt and Saint-Gaudens intended that the coin would be struck in high relief to beget out each stabbing specify. Unfortunately, however, the singer died in 1907, almost on the eve of the coin's debut. Meanwhile, Roosevelt was preoccupied with more burning matters of state. All this, mutual with the requirements of stack-shaped coinage, gave Mint Chief Engraver Charles E. Barber an option and a tolerate to drop the coin's relief. High-race minting mandatory this, he said-and what's more, high-relief coins wouldn't stack.

Fortunately, the beauty of the coin relics dazzling, even in poorer relief. And thankfully, Saint-Gaudens' unusual art was preserved in its pristine beauty through the minting of small records of really high-relief patterns and high-relief corporate strikes in 1907-or pretty MCMVII, for the year was shown on these coins in Roman numerals.

The first production pieces were made with high relief. Nevertheless after unusual just 11,250, Mint officials substituted new dies with the bespoke, lower relief, and these remained in use through the end of the cycle. As if to underscore the modify from the classical to the commercial, the Mint worn Arabic numbers in dating all summary-relief dual eagles.

"Saints" were minted each year from 1907 through 1916. A three-year interval followed, after which the coins were struck yearly from 1920 through 1933. The part mints in Denver and San Francisco augmented the focal Philadelphia Mint production, but not in every year. Mint letters exist above the meeting the designer's initials (ASG) below.

From 1929 onward, newly minted examples were seized almost entirely as part of the homeland's gold coffers, with the being free into circulation. Almost all these were melted (along with the prior fold eagles) following the gold withdraw order signed in 1933 by another President Roosevelt-Theodore's cousin, Franklin. As a significance, twin eagles square 1929 through 1932 are exceedingly juicy nowadays. The Mint created nearly half a million pieces dated 1933, but the government maintains that these were never free, and, hence it is banned to own them. That was the end of accepted-emanate U. S. Gold coinage.

Mintages were normally modest, but minder melting, not low mintage, was primarily responsible for concept of the chief rarities, with the 1927-D, the 1920-S, the 1921, the 1930-S and the 1932. The survival of many of these dates is predominately due to the large capacity for gold coins held in Swiss and French invest vaults. Since the 50s, tens of thousands of "Saints" have found their way back to their country of beginning and into collectors' hands. Proofs are very rare as only 687 were untaken for sale from 1908 through 1915. They were made with an utterly dull surface excepting for 1909 and 1910 when they were made with a more brilliant Roman or satin determine. This large gold coined is actively hunted by a host of collectors: from gold hoarders to letters collectors to those challenged by the awesome (and costly) undertaking of assembling a complete date and mintmark set.

In 1986, the U.S. Treasury rewarded the "Saint" the utmost complement by placing its obverse sketch on the American Eagle gold bullion coins, where it has remained ever since.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Diameter: 34 millimeters Weight: 33.436 grams Composition: .900 gold.100 copper Edge: Lettered E PLURIBUS UNUM Net Weight: .96750 scrap downright gold

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Akers, David W. A Handbook of 20th-Century United States Gold Coins 1907-1933, Bowers & Merena Galleries, Wolfeboro, NH, 1988. Bowers, Q. David, United States Gold Coins, An Illustrated History, Bowers & Ruddy, Los Angeles, 1982. Breen, Walter, Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins, F.C.I. Press/Doubleday, New York, 1988. Dryfhout, John H. The Works of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, University Press of New England, Hanover, NH, 1982. Taxay, Don, The U.S. Mint and Coinage, Arco Publishing Co. Inc., New York, 1966. Vermeule, Cornelius, Numismatic Art in America, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1971.

Coin Information Provided Courtesy NGC.

Gobrecht Dollars 1836-1839

The United States Mint had ceased beautiful silver dollars in 1804. Although the denomination was the "flagship" fiscal part in U.S. money, exigency for it came generally from bullion depositors, and few buck coins circulated in the beginning of the 19th century. Much of each year's mintage was each melted domestically or exported.

By the 1820s and '30s however, two successive Mint directors, Samuel Moore and Robert M. Patterson, had advocated bracing cash currency. Although Moore obtained authorization to do so in 1831, it wasn't pending Patterson replaced him in 1835 the preparations finally got under way. Not since the 1792 half dismes were struck had so many Mint and other government officials extensive such an intense notice in the production of a new coin.

Mint Director Patterson, ambitious to make an artistic account, hired actor Thomas Sully to make sketching of a full notable of Liberty-along the outline of the allegorical stature Britannia seen on English coins. Patterson retained imminent artist Titian Peale to make the eagle for the riddle and instructed newly hired Second Engraver Christian Gobrecht to transmute the designs to metal. Gobrecht's blueprint was a composite of both Peale's and Sully's mechanism, as well as his own ideas. It was a masterful work and usual close acclaim. President Jackson and his Cabinet reviewed Gobrecht's sketches on October 17, 1835 and were well impressed.

The final blueprinted featured the reckon of Liberty seated on a sway, draped in a diverse-descent gown-suggesting statuary from Hellenistic Greece. She is looking over her right shoulder, her right arm supporting the Union protect. Her left arm holds a long baton with a Liberty cap on top. The undamaged middle badge stands abandoned on the frontage with no stars or lettered campaign, only the meeting below, giving the coin a medallic eminence, with Liberty a secluded, cameo body. A naturalistic eagle in departure adorns the transpose, the bird rising "onward and upward" as Patterson planned, a thinking planned to embody the abundant optimism the Americans had for the people's impending. The eagle flies amid a grassland of 26 large and small stars, representing the thirteen novel states and the thirteen admitted to the Union since 1789 (expecting Michigan's entry).

By November, 1836 all was arranged for check strikings in silver. A small number (presumably 18 pieces) of the new dollars were distributed in Philadelphia. Reaction was almost universally positive, with one exception. Patterson had planned Gobrecht to place his name on the new coin. He did so by inscribing C. GOBRECHT F. In small print in the pasture beneath the personage of Liberty-the 'F.' fixed for FECIT, Latin for "He made it." Gobrecht was criticized as a "conceited German" and vilified in the home plead. Patterson solved the problem by having Gobrecht move his name to the pedestal of the figure of Liberty, obvious only if one looks warily at the coin. The eighteen or so pieces struck with his name below the immoral are considered patterns and are very erratic.

Regular production of Gobrecht dollars began sometime in December of 1836. The 1,000 accepted stock dollars of 1836 were struck at the old 1792 standard delicacy of .8924. The same time was used for the 600 coins minted in March, 1837, but these pieces were created from planchets .900 subtle-as authorized by the Mint Act of 1837. So close in import, the two issues are clearly differentiated by alignment: the 1837 dollars have a medallic alignment-the face and overturn are aligned on a vertical axis, while the 1836 coins have a horizontal, or coin, alignment. All inventive dollars square 1836 will show the eagle snatched "onward and upward," while the restrikes made in the 1850s and '60s will have the eagle airborne horizontally. The about 25 coins made in 1838 are considered to be patterns, with thirteen stars around the margin of the facade replacing the stars on the converse fields. Only 300 dollars were struck in 1839 with Gobrecht's shape, and all were proposed for circulation. These coins, like the 1838 patterns, have reeded edges.

Throughout the 19th century Gobrecht dollars were very accepted with collectors. In the deceased 1850s, require far exceeded the offered supply. Mint Director James Ross Snowden, desirous of expanding the Mint's collection of coins during his term, decisive to take benefit of this setting. Funds were not unfilled for outright grasp of coins, so Snowden used Mint dies to generate numismatic curiosities such as the Class II and Class III 1804 dollars, "transitional" half dimes and dimes, and Gobrecht dough restrikes. He would then trade these restrikes and fantasy coins to confine collectors for unusual coins wanting in the Mint collection. These restrikes were made from 1858 through the summer of 1860 and again in 1867-68. Actual numbers made are strange, but it is estimated that the totality number of restrikes may exceed the first mintage.

All Gobrecht dollars were struck in the Philadel-phia Mint and have a resistant face, even the accepted circulation issues of 1836 and 1837. This is a single phenomenon in U.S. numismatics-the only series of coins intended for circulation struck as proofs. Counterfeits are near unknown, perhaps because of the proof surface, which is very hard to duplicate. The propose first begins to show friction on Liberty's knees and breasts and on the highpoint of the eagle's breast on the undo.

Traditionally given the class of usual gush coins, Gobrecht dollars are actively pursued by class collectors. The most normally encountered emerge is the ugly skirt 1836-dated restrike with name on establish and twinkling reorder. These restrikes compose more than two thirds of the Gobrecht dollars offered at sale in topical years, and they exist in an eclectic stretch of grades from heavily circulated to gem rider. Date collectors occasionally crack completion of a three-instance set of coins with the dates 1836, 1838 and 1839, but very few collectors undertake the challenge of a complete set of Gobrechts. Such a set would be virtually impossible to assemble because of the several face/setback mulings made by Mint Director Snowden in the deceased 1850s.

Beginning in 1837 Gobrecht's Seated Liberty pattern was adopted on all U.S. silver coins from the dime through buck. The hitch with its naturalistic eagle was dropped for the part, half dough and dough denominations in favor of a revision of John Reich's heraldic eagle of 1807. The facade intention, only faintly modified from Gobrecht's unusual concept, was used on the buck awaiting 1873.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Diameter: 39 millimeters Weight: 1836 Original: 26.96 grams Others: 26.73 grams Composition: 1836 Originial: .8924 silver.1076 copper Others: .900 silver.100 copper Edge: 1836 Plain; 1838-39 Reeded Net Weight: 1836 Original: .77351 scrap untainted silver Others: .77344 ounce untainted silver

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Bowers, Q. David, Silver Dollars and Trade Dollars of the United States, Bowers and Merena Galleries, Wolfeboro, NH, 1993. Bowers, Q. David, The History of United States Coinage As Illustrated by the Garrett Collection, Bowers and Merena Galleries, Wolfeboro, NH, 1979. Breen, Walter, Walter Breen's Complete Encylopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins, F.C.I./Doubleday, New York, 1988. Julian, Robert. W. "The Gobrecht Dollars of 1836-1838," Legacy Magazine, November-December, 1988. Pollock, Andrew W. United States Patterns and Related Issues, Bowers and Merena Galleries, Wolfeboro, NH, 1994.

Coin Information Provided Courtesy NGC.

1904 Morgan Dollar, Brilliant Uncirculated

Political bulldoze, not civic petition, brought the Morgan cash into being. There was no unfeigned must for a new silver buck in the deceased 1870s; the last before "flip," the Liberty Seated dough, had been legislated out of reality in 1873, and barely anyone missed it.

Silver-mining happiness did neglect the buck, still, and lobbied Congress forcefully for its benefit. The Comstock Lode in Nevada was yielding giant quantities of silver, with ore appraise $36 million being extracted annually. After some futile attempts, the silver forces in Congress-led by Representative Richard ("Silver Dick") Bland of Missouri-finally disarmed authorization for a new silver money when Congress approved the Bland-Allison Act on February 28, 1878. This Acted essential the Treasury to obtain at market levels between two million and four million dollars of silver gold every month to be coined into dollars. This amounted to a small subsidy, arrival when the money's face penalty exceeded its intrinsic regard by only 0.07%.

In November 1877, virtually four months before passage of the Bland-Allison Act, the Treasury saw the handwriting on the roadblock and began making preparations for a new cash coin. Mint Director Henry P. Linderman designed Chief Engraver William Barber and one of his assistants, George T. Morgan, to make prototype dollars, with the best originate to be worn on the new coin. Actually, Linderman permanent this "contest" in Morgan's help; he had been dissatisfied with the work of the two Barbers-William and his son, Charles-and in 1876 had hired Morgan, a talented British engraver, with tactics to delegate him with new coin designs. At that time, resumption of silver dough penny was not yet planned, and Morgan began work on designs planned for the half money. Following Linderman's orders that a move of Liberty should return the thorough-notable depiction then in use, Morgan recruited Philadelphia drill coach Anna Willess Williams to pose for the new point.

Morgan's face features a left-facing portrait of Miss Liberty. The hitch depicts a rather skinny eagle which led some to vilify the coin as a "buzzard buck." The designer's early M appears on both sides-a first. It's on the truncation of Liberty's spit and on the ribbon's left round on the overturn. Mintmarks (O, S, D, and CC) are found below the circlet on the change. Points to confirm for carry on Morgans are the tresses above Liberty's eye and ear, the high upper fold of her cap and the crown of the eagle's breast.

Soon after production began, somebody advised the Mint that the eagle should have seven tail down, instead of the eight being exposed, and Linderman prepared this change. As an outcome, some 1878 Morgan dollars have eight feathers, some seven-and some show seven over eight. The seven-over-eight class is the scarcest, though all are somewhat customary.

More than half a billion Morgan dollars were struck from 1878 through 1904, with production taking place at the chief mint in Philadelphia and the branches in New Orleans, San Francisco and Carson City. Carson City production was normally much minor and defunct all together after that outlet was bunged in 1893. The coin came back for one closing curtain call in 1921, when more than 86 million examples were bent under the language of the Pittman Act at Philadelphia, San Francisco and Denver-but that was a bend-edged sword: Under the 1918 legislation, more than 270 million adult silver dollars, almost all Morgans, had been melted. The law necessary replacements for these, but most were of the Peace shape, which replaced the Morgan edition at the end of 1921.

In all, some 657 million Morgan dollars were formed in 96 different year-and-mint combinations. Hundreds of millions were melted over the time-by the government under the Pittman Act and the Silver Act of 1942, and by exclusive refiners since the delayed 1960s, when rising silver prices made this profitable. Despite all the melting, Americans had more than enough Morgans to pervade their daily wishes, since the dollars circulated often only in the West. As an outcome, colossal stockpiles remained in the Treasury's vaults, as well as reserve vaults nationwide. This explains why, so many Morgan dollars are so well preserved nowadays although their age; few saw actual use.

Even as the numismatic hobby underwent express lump beginning in the 1930s, hobby in other collecting areas far outpaced the mind paid to the large Morgan cartwheels. Most collectors favored the slash face-value coins (with their lower price) that were gladly available in circulation. Although it was viable to order silver dollars through banks or quickly from the Treasury, few noticed or cared. In the behind 1930s, however, some Washington dealers scholarly that the Treasury Department's Cash Room near the White House was paying out uncirculated Carson City money-coins having a market value of $5 or more at the time! More than a few dealers calmly exploited this discovery throughout the 1940s and '50s.

In the early 1960s, with silver rising in price, opportunists recognized the occasion to rotation securely profits by abiding silver certificates for money coins-mostly Morgans-at the Treasury. By the time the government clogged this rewarding glass in 1964, only 2.9 million cartwheels were left in its vaults, almost all of the scarce Carson City Morgans. The General isolated these Services Administration in a sequence of letters-bid sales from 1972 through 1980, earning big profits for the government and triggering great new notice in silver dollars.

Interest in Morgans was auxiliary heightened by the promotion surrounding the 400,000+ dollars found in the basement of Nevada eccentric LaVere Redfield's home. After word leaked out of the amazing store, some dealers got into the act, each jockeying for take in a crawl that ultimately wrecked with a Probate Court mart detained in January of 1976. At that auction, A-Mark Coins of Los Angeles captured the pile with a disarming bid of $7.3 million. The coins were cooperatively marketed by several dealers over a cycle of some days. Rather than depressing prices, the orderly spreading of these coins only fetched more collectors into the Morgan dollar fold. Similarly, the early 1980s witnessed the uniformly successful distribution of the 1.5 million silver dollars in the Continental Bank collect.

The Morgan dollar's scoop is a Cinderella tale: Until the 1960s, it was mostly unnoticed by the civic. Since then, it has gradually become among the most broadly pursued and preferred of all U. S. Coins. Although many collectors find the challenge of assembling an extreme court and mintmark set in Mint State compelling, others gratify themselves with collecting just one coin per year. Exceptional specimens are also wanted after by typeface collectors.

Major keys contain 1895, 1893-S, 1895-O, 1892-S, 1889-CC, 1884-S and 1879-CC. Mint minutes show that 12,000 dealing-smack dollars were made in Philadelphia in 1895, but only proofs are known; the mintage of these is 880. Proofs were made for every year in the series, but only a few brilliant proofs-variously reported at 15 to 24-are known for 1921. Prooflike Morgans also are well valued and are composed in both Prooflike (PL) and Deep-Mirror Prooflike (DPL or DMPL).

Few coins in U.S. account have been greeted with more indifference at the time of their release than this silver dollar. And few, if any, have then departed onto stimulate such passionate excitement among collectors.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Diameter: 38.1 millimeters Weight: 26.73 grams Composition: .900 silver.100 copper Edge: Reeded Net Weight: .77344 ounce downright silver

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Bowers, Q. David, Silver Dollars & Trade Dollars of the United States. A Complete Encyclopedia, Bowers and Merena, Wolfeboro, NH, 1993. Breen, Walter, Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins, F.C.I. Press/Doubleday, New York, 1988. Fey, Dr. Michael S. And Oxman, Jeff, The Top 100 Morgan Dollar Varieties: The VAM Keys, RCI Publishing, Morris Plains, NJ, 1996. Miller, Wayne, The Morgan and Peace Dollar Textbook, Adam Smith Pub. Co., Metairie, LA, 1982. Taxay, Don, The U.S. Mint and Coinage, Arco Publishing Co. Inc., New York, 1966. Yeoman, R.S., A Guide Book of United States Coins, 47th Edition, Western Publishing Co., Racine, WI, 1993. Van Allen, Leroy C. & Mallis, A. George, Comprehensive Catalog and Encyclopedia of Morgan & Peace Dollars, 3rd Edition, DLRC Press, Virginia Beach, VA 1991.

Coin Information Provided Courtesy NGC.

Franklin Half Dollars 1948-1963

In 1948, World War II had given way to an uneasy calm-a "Cold War," as presidential adviser Bernard Baruch so aptly named the new climate of international tension. The year also witnessed the killing of baseball legend Babe Ruth, the birth of the State of Israel and, with his presidential selection commotion of Thomas E. Dewey, a new lease on life in the White House for Harry S Truman.

In 1948, an important change took place in United States change as well, when the Franklin half money made its entrance. Its introduction finished the conversion of U.S. coin designs from allegorical figures to portraits of notorious Americans. It also rang down the curtain on an era that many involve as the blond age of U. S. Currency art. The Walking Liberty half bucked, last struck in 1947, was the decisive precious-metal coin enduring in production from the early 20th-century interlude that spawned the "Mercury" dime, Standing Liberty area and Saint-Gaudens magnify eagle.

Mint Director Nellie Tayloe Ross had contemplated a coin reverence Benjamin Franklin ever since a U.S. Mint nobility ready in Franklin's honor in 1933 by John R. Sinnock, the Mint's chief sculptor-engraver. Evidence suggests that Ross might have made the change in the early 1940s, when the half dough's conceive, worn for the statutory lowest of 25 living, became eligible for replacement. Although escalating production burden occasioned by World War II postponed Ross' strategy, she showed her enthusiasm for the predict by directing Sinnock to invent a Franklin coin on a contingency source. It would be hard to criticize Director Ross for her variety of Ben Franklin as a U.S. money focus. Of all the Founding Fathers, Franklin very possible enjoyed the most build among his contemporaries, not only in this country but also abroad. He was fairly legendary as an imprinter, publisher, author, inventor, scientist and moderator, and he played a crucial task in ration the colonies return their independence by securing crucial aid from France.

In an oration at the promotion of the Franklin half cash, Ross recalled the people had urged her to place Franklin's likeness on the cent because he was identified so narrowly with the guideline "A money saved is twopence vindicate" (often misquoted as "A currency saved is a penny earned"). Ross explained her catalog of the half buck: "You will permit, I trust, that the fifty-cent part, being bigger and of silver, lends itself much better to the production of an impressive result," she declared.

Sinnock's picture of Franklin, modeled after a bust by 18th-century sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon, is bold and cleanse, contrasting sharply with the clever, complete depiction of Miss Liberty on the Walking Liberty coin it replaced. LIBERTY is extolled above the right-facing portrayal, IN GOD WE TRUST below and the time to Franklin's right. Tucked below Franklin's shoulder are Sinnock's initials, JRS.

The Liberty Belled on the repeal made sense as a compliment to Franklin, since both have become narrowly identified not only with the populace's birth but also with the city of Philadelphia. Three inscriptions are arranged around the timer in the same minus serif tailor used on the frontage: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA is above, HALF DOLLAR below and E PLURIBUS UNUM, in much lesser script, to the left. To the right of the timer is a frail-looking eagle. This had been mandatory by law on the half cash since 1792 and was reaffirmed by the Coinage Act of 1873, which mandated the post of an eagle on every U.S. silver coin superior to the dime. The eagle was added by Gilroy Roberts, who finished work on the coin following Sinnock's fatality in 1947.

Understandably, the central Commission of Fine Arts (an advisory body) took deliver with the eagle's size. Oddly enough, they also disapproved of displaying the crack in the Liberty Bell, arguing that "to show this might charge to puns and to statements derogatory to United States money." Although the Commission recommended a blueprint competition, the Treasury Department approved Sinnock's models lacking change.

Years later, Sinnock was accused of modeling his report of the Liberty Bell, lacking prim belief, on a sketch by performer John Frederick Lewis. The robbery first occurred in 1926, when Sinnock apparently used the sketch in fashioning his purpose for the commemorative half money marking the sesquicentennial of U.S. independence. His Franklin half buck overturn figure was patterned, in turn, on that earlier work. Numismatic allusion books now praise Lewis tardily for his role.

Although Franklin half dollar mintages were modest by novel-day standards, the string contains no issues that are particularly erratic. The production lowed headland came in 1953, when the Philadelphia Mint struck just under 2.8 million examples; the peak occurred in 1963, when the Denver Mint made just over 67 million. Franklin halves also were minted in San Francisco. On fork-mint issues, the D or S mintmark appears above the bell on the contrary. Total mintage for the chain, with proofs, was almost 498 million coins.

Because they are so bounteous, in circulated situation most Franklin halves take little or no premium above their bullion amount. Several dates are subtle, however, in the upper mint-national grades, especially with effusive defined "bell defenses" near the Liberty Bell's foot. Although the relatively low mintage 1949-D and 1950-D issues are considered "key" dates in the chain, some coins with higher mintages, while customary in lower grades, also command impressive premiums in Mint State-65 and above. These coins routinely came with weak strikes, and the paucity of "ornaments" is compounded by the statement that few were wisely saved. Dates in this grouping involve 1960-D, 1961-P and D and 1962-P and D. Proofs were issued every year from 1950 through 1963 as part of yearly evidence sets: over 15.8 million were made. Small numbers of proofs were struck with cameo disparity, an attractive frozen outward on the campaign contrasted with a polished mirror-like appearance in the fields. These cameo coins can beget substantial premiums over the prices of ordinary proofs without such contrast.

A full set of Franklin halves consists of 35 different question strikes and 14 different proofs. Because it is so compact and certainly affordable in minus-than-unspoiled grades, the series is widely serene by year and mint. Those with deeper pockets who ardor a challenge seek to assemble dating-and-mint sets in MS-65 and above or collections of high-grade proof Franklins with resonant cameo contrast. Points on the design to first show garb are Franklin's cheek, shoulder and fleece behind the ear and the lettering and ranks on the Liberty Bell.

Franklin half dollars were made for just 16 time. The series was cut succinct at the end of 1963, when John F. Kennedy's shocking assassination led to the concept of a new the dollar memorializing the martyred head.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Diameter: 30.6 millimeters Weight: 12.50 grams composition: .900 silver.100 copper Edge: Reeded Net load: .36169 degree innocent silver

BIBLOGRAPHY: Breen, Walter, Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins, F.C.I. Press/Doubleday, New York, 1988. Ehrmantraut, Jack, Jr., An Analysis of Gem Franklin Half Dollars, Five Seasons Publishers, Hiawatha, IA, 1983. Taxay, Don, The U.S. Mint and Coinage, Arco Publishing Co., New York, 1966. Tomaska, Rick, The Complete Guide to Franklin Half Dollars, DLRC Press, Virginia Beach, VA, 1997. Vermeule, Cornelius, Numismatic Art in America, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1971. Yeoman, R.S., A Guide Book of United States Coins, 47th Edition, Western Publishing Co., Racine, WI, 1993.

Coin Information Provided Courtesy NGC.