Piefort's Indian Set
1850 1/2 ONZA


Obverse
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Reverse
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Coin Details

  

Set Details
Origin/Country: COSTA RICA
Design Description:
Item Description: 1/2O 1850 JB
Grade: NGC AU 55
Owner: Piefort
 
Winning Set: Piefort's Indian Set
Date Added: 5/16/2015
Research: See NGC's Census Report for this Coin

Owner's Description

Republic 1/2 Onza, 1850-JB. NGC AU-55. San Jose mint, KM 100. Mintage of 18,000 pieces. One year type with exceptional strike with the standing indian having a nearly full grass skirt. This amazing representative of this popular type, features an impeccable strike with all the details for both the shield and the reverse. The shield is noteworthy with a full strike and all the intended design details within, which is very rare for this type of coins. Most coins have a soft strike in the reverse center, so the full strike is very rare. It is tied to the third finest by the NGC Census record, but has much better eye appeal than other coins with higher grades that have been auctioned recently. This coin shows a semi-circled shaped die break at the bottom of the pedestal below "1821" on the obverse. This characteristic point to issues struck at two different times: one (like the ex-Richard Lissner coin) corresponds to an earlier state dies coupled with a less powerful minting press while the other (including the present coin) points to a later-die state coupled with a better minting press. The world known numismatist, Carlos Jara, pointed out that the dies were indeed used for two different issues: in 1850 upon their receipt to strike a meager 522 coins, and then in 1857 and 1858 to strike 16267 pieces (a fairly large number by Costa Rican standards). It would seem logical to link the Lissner coin with the 1st issue (as one of the first strikes from the new dies) and the present coin with the 2nd issue. The aforementioned mintage figures also fit well with the fact that most surviving specimens of the Costa Rica ½ Onza 1850 show the die-break near the pedestal. For the mundane "regular" coins, the force of the mint press was eased, resulting in the ubiquitous weak strike found on surviving coins. (Note: Description of the two issues of this coin was obtained from Heritage Lot 32173 Catalog August 2015).

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