1881 Liberty Head Half Eagle - 1/0

Coin Details

Auction Record

Description

This is the 1881/0 overdate variety of the 1881 Liberty Head Half Eagle. 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. A Gold Half Eagle from the Philadelphia Mint, the 1881 Liberty Head Half Eagle - 1/0 belongs to the Liberty Head Half Eagles 1839-1908 series. The 1881 Liberty Head Half Eagle issue as a whole had a mintage of 5.7 million; how many coins carry this variety is unknown. The obverse features Liberty facing left wearing a coronet inscribed LIBERTY and the reverse displays a heraldic eagle with shield on breast, olive branch and arrows in talons, with the motto IN GOD WE TRUST on a scroll above the eagle. High mintage year at Philadelphia; the half eagle was a workhorse gold denomination. Struck in 90% gold, 10% copper, weighing 8.36 grams, 21.65 mm in diameter, with a reeded edge. Cataloged as PCGS #8355.

Cross References

FS-301