Owner Comments:

The Coinage Act of Feb 21, 1857 ended the status of foreign coins as legal tender, discontinued the Half Cent and Large Cent and authorized the coinage of the Flying Eagle small cent.

The 1857 Half Cent is far scarcer than it's mintage of 35,180 coins would suggest, because well more than half the mintage still in the mint's remaining stock, was ordered melted by Mint Director James Ross Snowden after the denomination was abolished.

All 1857 Half Cents were struck from one set of dies and genuine business strikes all have a tiny lump of metal on the right side of the first "A" in AMERICA.