Seconds Count
50c SEATED LIBERTY, NO DRAPERY 1839

Owner Comments:

Before eBay, Hawaii was not the ideal location for an avid coin collector. Western contact with the islands did not get underway, to any signicant degree, until the late-1830s. Even native coinage was limited (to the 1847 penny and the silver issues of 1883). While Hawaii was then, and is now, a paradise in many respects, it was not a paradise for an aspiring coin collector. Somehow, this coin came into my hands soon after I moved to Hawaii in the mid-1960s. I knew nothing of its rarity, and it was certainly not a part of any long-range collection plan I had formulated. I simply liked the coin: it was of the same series as the first two coins I acquired in Japan, and the $65.00 price, which seemed so excessive at the time, sure looks good with 50 years of hindsight.