"Scott Restrike" Confederate Half Dollar

At the beginning of the Civil War, the Confederate States of America seized the three U.S. Government mints in Charlotte, North Carolina, Dahlonega, Georgia and New Orleans, Louisiana. The mints operated for a short time under CSA authority, but used the regular U.S. mint dies almost exclusively. There are very few competent coin die makers in the South, and CSA had no choice but to use the dies on hand until they wore out.

The one exception was the 1861 Confederate half dollar. One die was made, which the CSA called the obverse, and it was paired with a Union obverse. Only four coins were made from this die pair, and then the experiment was ended. One piece went to CSA president, Jefferson Davis, who carried it as a pocket piece.

B.F. Taylor, who was the chief coiner at the New Orleans Mint, ended up with the Confederate die and one example of the coins. Well after the war Taylor came forward with the die and his coin. He sold the coin and the die, and the J.F. Scott Company decided to use the die to make some tokens and coins.

The die was rusted and not in the best of shape. To be on the safe side, Scott first used the die to strike 500 tokens on white metal. The idea was put as little stress on the die is possible by using the white metal, which is softer than silver.

After the die survived that test, Scott acquired 500, 1861-O half dollars. He had the reverse design planed off the pieces and over struck the reverse with the Confederate die. The result was the Scott Confederate Half Dollar restrike. An example of this piece is shown above for your grading consideration.

Here is an example of one of the 500 Scott tokens that were made.