Owner Comments:
At the beginning of 1795 mint officials decided to devote all of the mint’s productive capacity to the coinage of gold and silver. Neither cents nor half cents would be produced until October of that year. This piece is one of 25,600 half cents that the mint produced during the final months of 1795. All of the half cents that were produced during that period had lettered edges and an official weight of 104 grains. As a practical matter the weight of these coins varied widely, however.
On December 28, 1795, President George Washington issued a proclamation that lowered the weight of the cent and half cent. In March Congress had authorized the president to take this action if he deemed it necessary. A temporary world wide shortage of copper had raised the price of the metal. The official weight of the half cent was lowered from 104 to 84 gains. The new lower weight half cents were too thin to accommodate edge lettering, and the edges were left blank. Mint delivery records show that all plain edge 1795 half cents were struck and delivered in 1796.
This coin is a truly outstanding example of this type. Its surfaces are virtually flawless; the detail is nearly Mint State; and its light brown color is impeccable. All pre 1800 dated half cents are scarce, but high grade examples like this are truly rare.
This is an example of the 1795 Cohen 1 die variety. The most distinctive diagnostic feature is that the die sinker, John Smith Gardner, used the “I” punch from “LIBERTY” for the “1” in the date. The variety’s rarity rating is R-2, and this tied with one other variety as the most common half cent die variety for the year. Overall there are at least five examples of this coin in Mint State. There are a fairly large number of AU pieces known (at least eight) as well, but given the eye appeal and high AU status of this piece, it is possible that this coin is among the ten best known examples of the 1795 C-1 half cent.