1797 Half Dime Value

pictures of both sides would help
Not a very nice looking coin but even with the hole and apparent damage / wear it may fetch $600-800+ but I'm no expert.
Edit - didnt notice it was a 13 stars, so maybe a little more then what I said.

I'm a Half Dime fan, but my interest is capped bust Half Dimes (1829-1837) so I don't know much about these early Half Dimes. I do, however, have the Logan-McCloskey book "Federal Half Dimes 1792-1837." There is only one recognized die marriage that year that has 13 stars - it's the LM-4. Regarding rarity, the book says: "R-6. A rare die marriage that is usually seen well worn. Extremely rare in mint state." An R-6 means that there's an estimated 13-30 examples extant. So, even though it's got some miles on it, it's a special coin.

Caveat: I usually try to attribute Half Dimes before I opine about them, and in the case of this one, I don't see enough detail (nor do I see the reverse) so I couldn't attribute it. But I'll assume your dad passed on good info to you and you're confident. Either way, the other three die marriages (LM-1 thru LM-3) are, respectively, R3, R4, and R5 - so none is what you'd call "common."

@Crazy Monkey, thanks for sharing the reverse pic. I'm sold on the LM-4 attribution. As I looked closer, the placement of the stars on this Obverse 3 is waaay different from the first two obverses that year, the 15-star Obv 1 and the 16-star Obv 2. The reverse you uploaded is clearly Reverse E. Pickup points are clear and include the branch stem touching the last A in AMERICA.

That R6 was an estimate. The rarity number could go down if/as more LM-4s are discovered. (R5 is 31-75 estimated extant). I saw that the Logan McCloskey book (published 1998) called it R6. And the 2019 Half Dime census published by the John Reich Collectors Society (JRCS) also maintained the R6 estimate. However, a search of Heritage Auctions to see if they had any low-grade examples like yours (they don't) show that they were calling the marriage R5, starting in about 2010. And that's looking reasonable to me - simply judging from the number of different 1797 LM-4's they've offered in the last 20-some years.

https://coins.ha.com/c/search-resul...veTab-071515

This is a VERY timely conversation for me to be involved in, as I'm currently assisting the primary author of the upcoming 2023 JRCS Half Dime census, and I intend to discuss the possible downgrading of this marriage to R5. And if anyone joins the JRCS, you'll get the "JR Journal" when that census is published (April I think). (Anyone is welcome to message me with any questions about that).

Thanks for sharing your story and images!

-Sean

to the CCF.

Interesting discussion - good that we have bikergeek as an expert!

I don't know what this would go for, on ebay I sure think it would get plenty of bids and run way up into the hundreds even without being some rare die variety. But more so I just want to raise a toast to Bikergeek who seems quite the maestro. Good to hear from you, keep it coming!

I would recommend submitting the images to a respectable auction house like Heritage Auctions for a free estimate. Even if it doesn't meet their minimum of $5,000, you will hopefully still get an estimate of its value.

Seems really interesting that both the OP's coin and Helotian's coin seem to have the hole in almost the same location. Hole seems located to show the eagle side when worn around the neck. That's what shows upright.