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1797 50C VF25 PCGS. O-102, Low R.6. After producing ne

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / US Coins Start Price:13,000.00 USD Estimated At:1.00 - 1,000,000.00 USD
1797 50C VF25 PCGS. O-102, Low R.6. After producing ne
<B>1797<50C> VF25 PCGS.</B></I> O-102, Low R.6. After producing nearly 300,000 half dollars in 1795, the Mint curtailed its manufacture of half dollars in the following two years to a skimpy 3,918 pieces (all delivered in 1797, with their mintages lumped together in one figure), while simultaneously introducing an entirely new design for both the obverse and the reverse. Collectors may be either gladdened or saddened (or impoverished) by this, but the effect of the Mint's actions was to almost instantaneously create the rarest, most desirable, and least obtainable of all U.S. silver coin types: The rarest U.S. silver coins were born. The obverse featured a Liberty figure that was much more attractive and natural-looking than on the 1795 issues, with her flowing hair in curls, tied up at the back with ribbons, and modest drapery over her shoulders and bustline. The reverse die was less successful: While the eagle looks a bit less scrawny and buzzardlike than on the 1795 pieces, it is still far from the majestic avian later pictured on many U.S. issues.<BR> The 1796 half dollars come in two varieties, differing in the number of obverse stars--15 or 16--changed when Tennessee was admitted to the Union, and designated respectively as O-101 and O-102. The 1797 half dollars, all with 15 stars, initially reused a reverse die from 1796 that was replaced when it began to fail. The two 1797 reverse dies are distinguished by the placement of leaves relative to the peripheral letters. On the 1797 O-101 reverse (the one carried over from 1796), a laurel leaf tip ends at the left serif of the base of the second T in STATES, and a palm leaf tip ends midway between the O and F of OF. On the replacement-die 1797 O-102 variety, the laurel leaf ends beneath the base of the T, while the palm leaf tip extends only to the left serif of the base of the F.<BR> Collectors long believed that the