Half Dollar Octagonal, Period 2 (BG-901 to BG-999)

About This Coin

This group holds the octagonal gold half dollars of Breen and Gillio's second period, numbered from BG-901. Breen and Gillio's second period (1858 to 1882 in their second edition, 1859 to 1882 in the first) holds the pieces jewelers made mostly as souvenirs and charms; the act of June 8, 1864 made private coinage unlawful, and Secret Service seizures had ended the trade by 1883. The earliest are dated 1859, and Liberty head and Indian head obverses both occur; pieces in this range dated 1852 and 1856 were made in the later period, and several dates are overdates. Auction descriptions name Frontier, Deviercy & Co. for BG-901, BG-902 and BG-905 and Christopher Ferdinand Mohrig for BG-938 and BG-962; BG-917a is a die trial in silver. No record gives the number struck of any of them.