Photos used with permission and courtesy of Heritage Auction Galleries

Description:
This design type was coined between 1795 and 1798, with an estimated mintage of 17,555 pieces for all issues. The 2008 Guide Book lists 8,707 half eagles minted in 1795. According to information contained in Bullion Journal A of mint records, 1795 half eagle mintage occurred between July 31 and September 16 of that year:

Mint records indicate that one extra five dollar piece was struck for assay with the July 31 delivery, one with the August 11, two with the August 14, and three each with every delivery after that, for a total of 22 assay coins. The early Mint little cared what date a coin bore, and the reported quantities of coins made often failed to match the years stamped thereon. But the 1795 issues were created from 12 different die pairings.

Although the 1795 is not particularly scarce by half eagle standards, it is nevertheless a relatively high priced coin due to its popularity among type collectors. In this regard. Jeff Garrett and Ron Guth, writing about the 1795 issue in their Encyclopedia of U.S. Gold Coins: 1795-1933, indicate that the number of survivors today is about 520 examples. They go on to say that Mint State specimens are fairly rare, and are most likely to fall into the MS60 to MS62 grade range. With respect to Gems, Garrett and Guth contend that they are “extremely rare.”

The Capped Bust to Right, Small Eagle design type was created by Chief engraver Robert Scott. Walter Breen, writing in his Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins, says that while Scott’s source for the obverse design is unknown, “Probably he copied some unlocated contemporaneous engraving of a Roman copy of a Hellenistic goddess, altering the hair, adding drapery and an oversize soft cap.” (more…)

Photos used with permission and courtesy of Heritage Auction Galleries

Description:
The United States twenty cent coin (often called a twenty cent piece) was a unit of currency equalling 1/5th of a United States dollar.

The twenty cent coin had one of the shortest mintages and lowest circulations in US coin history, for both the series and the denomination. It was minted from 1875-1878, but was only released for circulation in 1875 and 1876, with only a few hundred proofs released during the remaining two years.

It also has the distinction of being one of the few coins minted in the short lived Carson City Mint branch of the United States Mint in Carson City, Nevada (which only operated from 1870-1893).

Nearly 1,355,000 were produced in total, with over 1.1 million of those being the 1875-S. 10,000 of the 1876-CC were minted, but most were melted down at the US Mint before ever being released, and now only an estimated 12-20 are thought to exist.

The U.S. twenty-cent piece was created at the urging of Senator John Percival Jones from Nevada. Jones represented the silver miners of the Comstock Lode. (more…)