PCGS Around The World: Paris Office, Condition Census 1815/2 Capped Bust Half Discovery

PCGS - The dream of an undiscovered numismatic rarity persists with dealers and collectors around the world. Such a find was recently made in a submission to the PCGS Europe office in Paris in the form of a rare date Capped Bust half dollar. Left forgotten in a coin collection for over 50 years, this coin just now came to light and is a new addition to the top-condition pieces for this date.


1815 /2 50c PCGS MS63

The 1815/2 Capped Bust half dollar has always been a rare date in the series. With a mintage of only 47,150, all were produced with the single die pair that features an overdate with the remains of a 2 under the 5 of the date, making every 1815 an 1815/2. This issue is the lowest mintage among circulation strikes in the Capped Bust half dollar series. It is believed that striking of the 1815/2 Half Dollars occurred in the end of 1815 and beginning of 1816, prior to the fire at the United States Mint in Philadelphia, which brought a temporary end for production of coinage there except for cents dated 1816. The entire mintage for the 1815/2 Half Dollar was turned over to the Treasurer on January 10, 1816. With research done by R.W. Julian, it is believed that the entire mintage of 1815/2 Half Dollars dollars may have been paid out to a single depositor, Jones Firth and Co., a firm that was very active in international trade. So, many of these coins may have ended up overseas in trade and likely later melted.

The 1815/2 Half Dollar has always been a desirable coin. And with a boom in United States numismatics following the end of Large Cents in 1857, date collectors for United States coinage realized quickly that 1815 Half Dollars were scarce and could fetch premiums over face value before the 1860s. As early as 1859, the American Numismatical Manual by Montroville W. Dickeson classified the 1815 Half Dollar as very rare. In 1941 B. Max Mehl wrote in the William Forrester Dunham sale catalog that he doubted if as many as six 1815s exist in uncirculated condition. Fast forward to today, with certification and research, we can trace the known surviving coinage from 1815/2 Half Dollars and the grades they have been given. Believed to be the finest example, the Kaufman coin, once a PCGS MS65+, now resides in an alternative grading company's MS66+ holder. The second-finest known is the D. Brent Pogue piece, which sold in 2019 for $111,625 and is graded PCGS MS65. The Pogue coin is the piece that B. Max Mehl wrote about in 1941 and had also been owned by Reed Hawn. There are two graded PCGS MS64+, including the Louis E. Eliasberg coin once from the John H. Clapp Collection and the Eric P. Newman specimen that once resided in the Colonel E.H.R. Green Estate. The PCGS census shows an additional three examples in MS64 and four in MS63.

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