1817 Capped Bust Half Dollar - 1817/3

Coin Details

Auction Record

Description

This is the 1817/3 overdate variety of the 1817 Capped Bust Half Dollar. Dies were expensive, and a serviceable die left over at the end of a year was often kept and re-dated rather than destroyed: the new digits were punched directly over the old ones. The earlier date survives underneath wherever its strokes fall outside the digits punched over it, which is why an overdate is read from the shapes that do not belong to the date as printed. The effect is in the die, so every coin struck from it carries the same remnant in the same position. Any mintage given below counts the entire issue for this date and mint, not this variety: a variety comes from one die or a few, and how many coins they struck was never separately recorded. Produced at the Philadelphia Mint, the 1817 Capped Bust Half Dollar - 1817/3 is part of the Capped Bust Half Dollars 1807-1839 series. The 1817 Capped Bust Half Dollar issue as a whole had a mintage of 1.2 million; how many coins carry this variety is unknown. The obverse features Liberty facing left wearing a mob cap or turban, designed by John Reich and the reverse displays a heraldic eagle with shield on breast, olive branch and arrows in talons, with a banner reading E PLURIBUS UNUM within a motto scroll. The 1817/3 overdate was created by punching a "7" over an existing "3" in the date. The 1817/4 also exists. Struck in 89.2% silver, 10.8% copper, weighing 13.48 grams, 32.5 mm in diameter, with a lettered edge reading FIFTY CENTS OR HALF A DOLLAR. Cataloged as PCGS #6111.