Early Half Dimes

From collect.com
Early Half Dimes
By Mark Benvenuto (Coins Magazine, January 2006)
Thomas Jefferson has had his face prominently on U.S. nickels for nearly 70 years. This base-metal coin is about as common as can be. So, it might be a surprise to some newer collectors that when the U.S. Mint got down to the business of making money, in the 1790s, it had no plans to make nickels at all. Nope, prior to 1866, the United States functioned without a single base-metal five-cent piece. The nation used silver Half Dimes.

Half Dimes were part of the original plan for the Federal monetary system, as detailed in the Act of 1792, and were to be the lowest coin denomination made of silver. The Mint had some pressing concerns to deal with prior to producing any Half Dimes, like the procurement of a building, machinery and employees. So, it probably shouldn't come as too great a surprise that after a small mintage of Half Dimes in 1792, Half Dimes didn't begin regular mintage until 1794.

The mintage of the 1794 coins is oftentimes lumped in with those dated 1795 because exact, annual records were not kept for this first issue. The total for the two years is 86,416, which at first glance seems like a fair number.

But, as with many U.S. coins dated in the 1790s, they carry some pretty steep price tags. Nonetheless, a person can dream—in this case of putting together a Half Dime collection only of dates in the 1790s. In Mint State-60, the lowest of the mint-state grades, all you need is $13,500 to have your own, shiny 1794 Half Dime. If you don't want to part with the price of a car in exchange for a 1.35-gram piece of attractive and historic silver, you'll need to examine some lower grades. A specimen in Fine-12 will still set you back $1,750.

All the way down in About Good-3, the 1794 Half Dime will run you $800. In short, this is one expensive Half Dime.

The 1795s are a bit better than their earlier sisters, but will still set you back $9,500 in MS-60. That, of course, is if you can find one that has survived just over two centuries without the usual, attendant ravages of time. In Fine-12 this little, silver gem will cost $1,700; and way down in AG-3 it's a $600 coin.

In 1796 something significant happened. The design of the new Half Dimes changed. Those first two years sported a portrait of Liberty with a Flowing Hair design by Robert Scot. Scot was the designer of the next Half Dime as well, the Draped Bust design, which shows a more mature depiction of Liberty.

Whether you like the design change or not, one depressing fact for collectors today is that, in 1796, only 10,230 Half Dimes were coined. That means, if anything, these are going to be even more expensive than the 1794s and 1795s. Alas, that is definitely the case for the higher grades. Right down at the rock-bottom AG-3 grade, prices are about the same, but that still doesn't mean cheap.

An interesting aspect of the 1796 Half Dimes is that there are three significantly different varieties that get listed. There is a 1796/5, which means that a die that was first made in 1795 was retooled to reflect the correct date. There is also what gets called the "normal" date and the 1796 "Likerty" coin. On the latter coin, the inscription "LIBERTY" has a "B" that looks like a "K."

Despite a few serious researchers who have looked into these varieties in some detail, there is no clear consensus on which is the rarest and which is the most common. The end result is that all are priced about the same, with the 1796/5 commanding a bit of a premium.

If you are a variety nut, and if the 1796 Half Dimes didn't sate your appetite, well, you've got a big appetite! But the 1797s might be your ticket.

They, too, have three varieties, but they all relate to the stars around Liberty on the obverse. There are 13-, 15-, and 16-star varieties, all of which get lumped together for a total of 44,527 coins for the year. That total means this, too, is not a cheap year.

Based on a quick look in some pricing sheets, it appears the 13-star variety must be the rarest, since even in AG-3 it's a $1,000 coin. It climbs to $3,000 in F-12, and a whopping $25,000 in MS-60.

With price tags like these, you might wonder who collects Half Dimes by date and variety. The answer is obvious: really rich people. Perhaps the more pointed question is: Why are these coins so scarce today that they command these premiums in the first place? The scarcity of early Half Dimes is most likely a function of personal choice. In the earliest days of the U.S. Mint, people who owned silver in any form could turn that silver in to the Mint for coining.

The banking system we have today, with all its securities and distribution systems, just didn't exist. So, with wealthy silver owners being a source of some of the earliest silver for coins, they were afforded the privilege of requesting which denominations of coins they wanted. As you might guess, more seem to have picked silver dollars, and maybe half dollars, than picked Half Dimes for the end product. That alone put the little Half Dimes down into the "also ran" category, right from the start.

The Mint took a couple of years off from Half Dime production, not resuming until 1800. And even then, it only picked up production for a handful of years before silencing the Half Dime presses until 1829. All that, however, makes getting your hands on an early Half Dime even more of a challenge today. Even if you can only afford a single example, such a coin would be a great one to add to a collection.