Bill Jones' Type Set
50c FLOWING HAIR 1794-95


Obverse
Enlarge  
Reverse
Enlarge  

Coin Details

  

Set Details
Origin/Country: United States
Design Description: HALF DOLLARS - FLOWING HAIR
Item Description: 50C 1795
Grade: PCGS XF 45
Owner: BillJones
 
Winning Set: Bill Jones' Type Set
Date Added: 3/27/2007
Research: See NGC's Census Report for this Coin

Owner's Description

The Flowing Hair – Small Eagle half dollar was the first type of 50 cent piece and the second silver coin to be issued by the United States mint. This design would appear for only two years, 1794 and 1795. The 1794 coins, which were delivered in December of that year, are scarce with a mintage of just 23,464 pieces. The 1795 half dollars are much more common with a mintage of just under 300 thousand pieces. <br /><br />The 1795 half dollar is a fairly common coin relative to other early U.S. pieces, but many of the survivors are in low grade and many pieces have been damaged or improperly cleaned. I have also noted that many of these early dollars were weakly struck, which resulted in the loss of considerable design detail. The strike problems appear to be more severe for the half dollar than they were for the silver dollar and half dime, which bear the same design. Because of this, attractive pieces, like the one shown here, are very scarce and very much in demand. <br /><br />The coin shown here is Overton die variety # 104. Its rarity rating is R-4, which means that an estimated 76 to 200 examples of this variety are known. It is probably among the finest known examples because the published condition census runs from VF-25 to EF-45. As such this is one of the more important items in my collection.

To follow or send a message to this user,
please log in