Half cents of 1796 are true rarities, basic and foundational. Not “condition rarities” that might be elusive (until more are found) in some high grade and common in others. Instead, the half cents of this date are part of the basic structure of American numismatics.

There are two varieties, With Pole, as here offered, and the even rarer Without Pole. The present coin is a marvelous Choice Uncirculated example, MS-63. It might be significant to mention that the Louis E. Eliasberg Collection specimen had a Good-6 obverse and an About Good-3 reverse. We estimate that perhaps 100 or so are known, nearly all of which are in low grades. It is always an occasion when an example crosses the auction block.

Mint reports indicate 115,480 half cents were struck during the calendar year 1796. Current estimates place the mintage of 1796-dated half cents at 1,390 coins. As with most denominations in the early days of our Mint, the calendar year production is not always the same as the production of a given coinage date. Dies were used until they no longer were serviceable regardless of the year for which they were dated. Perhaps the most famous instance of this is an obverse die for a 1795-dated half eagle kept in storage and first used circa 1797. Numismatic scholarship has untangled a lot of such knots. Likely, most of the half cents struck in 1796 were from dies dated 1795. Similar confusion exists for the mintage figure of the 1796 silver dollar, an analysis of which is presented in Dave Bowers’ Silver Dollars and Trade Dollars: A Complete Encyclopedia, 1993.

Half cents of 1796 are mentioned with frequency in the annals of American numismatics. In Hobbies magazine, January and February 1935, veteran dealer Thomas L. Elder told of two examples, described as “Proof” (no Proofs were ever made, but the coins must have been nice!) found by Henry C. Miller, whose name is remembered today for his attribution numbers for 1785-1788 Connecticut copper coins:

He had made several trips to Europe and was well enough posted on rare American coins to find some gems in that line over there before the American dealers searched there so extensively for our own coinage. Mr. Miller collected Anglo-Saxon also, rare American colonials, and Roman coins. I’ll tell you more of Miller, his collections, and his finding a pair of Proof 1796 U.S. half cents in London.…

His fat and rotund figure suggested an amicable judge, rather than the coin collector as usually pictured. I had corresponded with him from Pittsburgh [where Elder lived until the early 1900s, before moving to New York City] and met him one day in his apartment in New York, where he showed me some duplicates which he had picked up in an English sale, for which there was at the time a market in the U.S. Lyman H. Low was at the peak of his prosperity at the time, with no competitor in New York City. Mr. Miller gave him small consignments from time to time, and he seemed pleased with the results. A little later he transferred his sale trade to me and never sold coins through anybody else afterwards. He sold out his fine cent collection and some other items in 1916, I think it was, and we got fine results for him. Sometime prior to that he had secured a pair of Proof 1796 half cents from a dealer in London for something less than $50 for the two. As he collected no half cents, he turned them over to me, and in a sale on East 23rd Street we got $300 for one of the half cents, which to that time seemed a world’s record. In the cent sale just mentioned, however the second half cent made the great record of over $700, going into the cabinet of a leading Detroit collector [Howard R. Newcomb], now retired.…

As Mr. Miller was born in 1844, he would be, if living today, 90 years old. He was graduated from Williams College in 1867. Just prior to his death in 1920, he told his sister, Miss Emma Miller, to take his collection to me in case anything befell him. Miss Miller informed me that he had a predilection for candy, which contributed to his end.

Such scraps and tidbits are interesting to read today. For a 1796 half cent, or any other coin, a nice story adds significantly to the appeal. Who knows, perhaps “our” 1796 half cent was one of those found by Miller!

This coin will be available at the Stacks Baltimore Auction on July 27th as Lot 1039