The Bayside New York Collection contains an incredible 100-plus half dollars minted between 1794 and 1807. Heritage will offer this wonderful assemblage as a Featured Collection in the upcoming 2008 July-August Baltimore, MD (ANA) US Coin Signature Auction.

Early half dollars are a favorite - albeit challenging - series among advanced collectors. Their fascination with die varieties is one of the very oldest traditions in American numismatics. Using his keen eye, the consignor assembled a collection featuring an abundance of beautiful variety examples over many years. The collection is sure to attract early half specialists, as well as type collectors seeking beauty and rarity.

Without any question, the cream of the Bayside New York Collection is the complete selection of 1796-1797 varieties. This is the second time that all four varieties of the Draped Bust, Small Eagle type consigned from one collection has crossed the Heritage auction block; the first time was the Reiver collection in January 2006. To put this achievement in its proper context, we are aware of only three other times ever that an auction has contained all four varieties from a single consignor.

The Bayside name came from the area where the consignor grew up and discovered coin collecting. He bought his first group of bust halves (about 20 of them, at 55-cents each!) late in WWII, when a neighborhood friend needed to raise cash. With a library copy of Beistle as his guide, he started down the path to becoming an expert in the series. Over the decades, while he collected many different series, he always pursued the early halves first. Even while stationed in the Pacific, this career Navy officer was able to continue collecting, thanks to the excellent FPO mail system. When stateside, he entertained Al Overton in his home. After his retirement, he took tables at dozens of coin shows to get first crack at the early halves on the market.

Highlights, many of which have video descriptions, of the Bayside New York Collection include:

• 1794 50C, O-101 VF30 NGC.
• 1794 50C, O-106, R.6 VF35 NGC.
• 1795 50C Two Leaves, O-101, R.7 VF20 NGC.
• 1795 50C 2 Leaves, O-105 XF40 NGC.
• 1795 50C 2 Leaves, O-106, R.6 VF20 NGC.
• 1795 50C Two Leaves, O-120, Low R.7 XF Details NCS.
• 1796 50C 15 Stars, O-101, R.5 AU58 PCGS.
• 1796 50C 16 Stars, O-102, High R.5 VF30 PCGS.
• 1797 50C O-101a, High R.4 VF30 NGC.
• 1797 50C O-102, Low R.6 VF35 PCGS.
• 1805/4 50C O-103, R.5 XF40 NGC.

Heritage is pleased to offer the newly discovered ninth known specimen of the rare 1817/4 overdate half dollar to the numismatic community. ICG grades this piece VG8, and indicates on the insert the Overton variety, “9th Known,” and “Obv. Scratch.”

The discovery was announced in the December 17, 2007 issue of Coin World, that says a Colorado woman, who requested anonymity, received the coin from the dispersal of her father’s coin collection to her and her three siblings 10 years ago. She indicated that she received several silver dollars, as well as many foreign coins he obtained during his military service in World War II. She said she did not know how the 1817/4 Capped Bust half dollar came to be in his possession.

According to Coin World, the woman, who believed the half dollar might be something special, purchased coin reference books over the past eight years in an attempt to place a value on the coin. After turning down an offer of around $100 from a local Colorado Springs dealer, she took the half dollar to the headquarters of the American Numismatic Association in Colorado Springs, where she was referred to Independent Coin Grading (ICG) in Englewood, a suburb of Denver.

Donald Parsley’s 2005 rewrite of Al Overton’s United States Early Half Dollar Die Varieties, 1794-1836 indicates that a later die state of this variety (O-102a) has “… a die crack spanning the entire obverse, from edge above upper peak of cap and running downward across cap, lobe of ear, lower curl and just right of 7 to edge.” In addition to the current coin, three others are classified as O-102, and five as O-102a (see roster below)

The 1817/4 half dollar was first announced to the numismatic community in the October 1930 issue of The Numismatist, under the “Editorial Comments-Numismatic News” section. The commentary, entitled NEW VARIETY OF HALF DOLLAR OF 1817 REPORTED, says:

“E.T. Wallis, of Los Angeles, Cal., writes that he has recently discovered a heretofore unknown variety of the 1817 half dollar, the last figure of the date being cut over a 4. A number of half dollars of 1817 over ‘13 are known, but this is the first one over ‘14 reported, Mr. Wallis says. He also says the coin is practically Uncirculated and the overdate can be seen plainly. The reverse is also an unlisted variety, as both I’s in United and America have the lower ceriphs broken off diagonally toward the right, and the I in United also has the left side of the top ceriph broken off. The obverse shows a die break across the coin, starting from the border to the right of the figure 7 and through the ear and between B and E of Liberty to the top of the border. Mr. Wallis thinks the die may have been cracked when the 7 was cut over the 4 and the die may have been broken when the striking began. Howard R. Newcomb, of Los Angeles, and M.L. Beistle, of Shippensburg, Pa., both authorities on the half-dollar series, have examined the coin and pronounced it a hitherto unknown variety.”

Why were so few 1817/4 half dollars apparently minted? Part of the reason may stem from Wallis’ thought above that the die may have broken when the 7 was cut over the 4, which had been partially effaced by Mint personnel. We might speculate that this effacing weakened the die, causing premature failure after just a few strikings. In this regard, it is interesting to note that the 1817/4’s cousin, the 1817/3, did not have the 3 effaced, and was produced with a considerably higher mintage. (more…)

The simultaneous auction offerings of both Original and Restrike 1827/3 quarters in one sale, alone marks Heritage’s Platinum Night as a sale to be remembered. Below is some background on these important yet in our opinion undervalued classic US rarities.

While many advanced collectors of U.S. coins are familiar with the story of how 19th-century numismatist Matthew A. Stickney traded an Immune Columbia cent in gold and some other coins to the U.S. Mint in May 1843 for an 1804 silver dollar,  specialists in early U.S. quarters recall a still earlier exchange.

Joseph J. Mickley (1799-1878) was another noted 19th-century collector, who is often called the “Father of American Numismatics” and was the first numismatist to own the Mickley-Hawn-Queller 1804 Class I Original silver dollar (recently auctioned by Heritage for a record-breaking $3,737,500).

Mickley, who was seeking a Bust quarter dated 1827 for his collection, went to the U.S. Mint late in 1827 and purchased four proof (as all are) 1827/3 Original quarters for a “Spanish or Mexican silver dollar” (Breen, Proof Encyclopedia).

The 1988 Breen Complete Encyclopedia provides provenances  for all four of those pieces, as well as six other Originals. This piece offered by Heritage was “Mickley’s favorite,” likely due to its full strike on all star centrils. It was also the last of the four that Mickley sold in the same famous W. Elliot Woodward October 1867 sale that included his 1804 Class I Original silver dollar. (more…)

Until recently the reference by C. Wyllys Betts titled American Colonial History Illustrated by Contemporary Medals (originally published in 1894; Quarterman Publications reprint, 1972) was the standard, and in many ways is still is, in terms of sheer physical descriptions and characteristics of the 623 medals listed in that volume. A more recent work, however, titled Comitia Americana and Related Medals: Underappreciated Monuments to Our Heritage by John W. Adams and Anne E. Bentley (George Frederick Kolbe, 2007) has added to collectors’ knowledge of these wonderful pieces.

The obverse shows the head of Liberty with flowing hair facing left, pole with Liberty cap behind her head, the inspiration for the 1793 Liberty Cap half cents, a design variously ascribed to Joseph Wright, Adam Eckfeldt, Henry Voigt, Robert Birch, and/or David Rittenhouse. The legend LIBERTAS.AMERICANA. encircles her head, with the date 4 JUIL. 1776 in exergue (the date of signing of the Declaration of Independence, of course). On the reverse Minerva with shield and spear protects an infant from an attacking lion, with legend around NON SINE DIIS ANIMOSUS INFANS (”The infant is not bold without divine aid”). As paraphrased from Betts:

The medal conveys an adroit compliment to the French nation. The infant Hercules stands for the new American Republic and has strangled two serpents, symbolizing the American victories at Yorktown and Saratoga (dates in reverse exergue, with DUPRE.F.)–but he is still exposed to the attack of the “cowardly” British lion, tail between his legs, whose power is baffled by Minerva. Her lily (”fleur de lis”) shield shows her to be emblematic of France, coming to the aid of the Republic. The legend is taken from an ode of Horace, “Descende coelo” (”Heaven descends”). (more…)