US Half Cent Conundrum

Thank you. Cannot seem to get any answer, even from the major grading companies. Somewhat of a collectomaniac. Collect American Eagles, Morgan dollars, Two Cent Pieces, Half-Cents, Kennedy halves, Eisenhower dollars, and as my wife says "dust".

I would offer the following suggestions for the scarcity and value of the 1811 Half Cents. First off, the reported mintage of 63,140 does not mean they were all dated 1811 (reference mint records for 1804 dollars). Second that mintage was small compared to the previous few years (1810 at 215,000, 1809 at 1,154,572 and 1808 at 400,000). These years were followed by zero production for 14 years, no Half Cents 1816-1824, so I think it is a safe assumption that these coins were circulated and used heavily. When you factor in the poor planchet quality and the softness of the copper used in 1809-1814 (try finding a nice clean chocolate brown 1811 Half Cent or cent) the attrition rate on these coins had to be high. Compare that to the 1854 -1857 Half Cents which came out at a time when Half Cents and large cents had fallen out of public favor and were being replaced with the flying eagle and indian head small cents. These later issue Half Cents never had a chance to circulate for very long which coupled with the higher grade planchets accounts for the high survival rate in higher grades and the resulting lower values.