1861 Seated Liberty Half Dollar - W-12 CSA Original

Coin Details

Auction Record

Description

This is the 1861 Confederate half dollar, one of the four originals struck at the New Orleans Mint with the Confederate reverse. After Louisiana seceded the New Orleans Mint passed to the state and then to the Confederate States. In April 1861 Treasury Secretary C. G. Memminger asked for a Confederate design, and the local engraver A. H. M. Patterson cut a single reverse die: a shield of seven stars and seven stripes under a liberty cap, between a cotton branch and another stalk, with CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA and HALF DOL. It was paired with the regular 1861 obverse die, which carries no mint mark, and only four pieces were struck. The ANA traces them to the chief coiner B. F. Taylor, who sold his and the die to J. W. Scott in 1879, to Dr. E. Ames, to Superintendent William Elmore, whose piece passed to Memminger and Jefferson Davis, and to John Riddell. PCGS lists it with the obverse die as W-12. Catalogue numbers: W-12 (PCGS). PCGS number 340401.

Cross References

W-12 (PCGS)