Owner Comments:
1861 50C GOD OUR TRUST
Judd-277, Pollock-328
Rarity: Low R.7 PF63
Struck in silver with reeded edge
Obverse: The same design that the Mint used to produce regular issue 1861 Liberty Seated half dollars. The point of the shield is over the left edge of the digit 8 in the date.
Reverse: Similar to the regular issue design, but with the addition of a scroll with the motto GOD OUR TRUST in the field above the eagle within a scroll.
Comment:
Lightly toned in pale silver, this coin also exhibits a few splashes of faint reddish-apricot iridescence along the upper right reverse border. One of fewer than a dozen examples of Judd-277 struck from this obverse die ("Date Left") believed extant per the uspatterns.com website.
Beginning in 1861 there was a sentiment to place the name of the Deity on our coinage. GOD OUR TRUST was one of the first mottoes suggested. IN GOD WE TRUST, the motto eventually adopted (it first appeared on a circulating coin with the two-cent piece of 1864), was first used on pattern coins two years after 1861, in 1863. For some reason, IN GOD WE TRUST never was used on paper money— until in the I950’s Matt Rothert first suggested the idea. So, now the government emphasizes God on our coins and paper money and considers IN GOD WE TRUST a necessary part of all new designs (the new bicentennial coins being the latest example).
Provenance/Appearance:
From the E. Horatio Morgan Collection. Stacks and Bowers Aug 2019 ANA Rosemont, IL. / Lot #3323 with note acquired in Dec 1987; Prior
- Bowers & Ruddy Dec 1975 (Kensingtom Collection) / Lot #1182