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***Auction Highlight*** 1852-o Seated Half Dollar 50c Graded Special Strike By USCG (fc)

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money Start Price:25.00 USD Estimated At:11,250.00 - 45,000.00 USD
***Auction Highlight*** 1852-o Seated Half Dollar 50c Graded Special Strike By USCG (fc)
***Auction Highlight*** 1852-o Stunning Toning; Mirrored Fields PCGS Estimates that only 8 survive total Seated Half Dollar 50c Graded Special Strike By USCG. Before getting into the long Narrative below, Let me state first that this coin is one of the rarest coins we have ever brought to auction.

PCGS estimates that 400, 1852-o survive in all grades, and 6 survive in uncirculated grades. Additionally, only 1 coin is graded ms65. As far as the SP, or special strike Proof, PCGS recognizes that 3 were struck, and at least 2 are known.

In ms63 this coin as a regular business strike trends $30,000, and in ms64 it trends $45,000. As an SP, the amount is unknown today, as the last to go to auction was in 2006, over 13 years ago, and estimates today put it at over $50,000.

And now to the Narrative:

The Extraordinary coin up for auction is one of the several Legendary Branch Mint Proof’s referenced by Walter Breen. It is clearly Die Variety WB-2, which corresponds to Breen & Bugert’s assessment of the Proof Coins. Breen references what he calls “drastically republished dies” and the consequent proof-like surfaces of the coins. In Bugert’s Book, “A Register of Liberty Seated Half-dollar Varieties” he says “These dies (WB-2) were used to produce business strike half dollars and the so-called 1852-O proof half dollars. The “Proof” status accepted by most numismatists, is disputed by Bill Biggert, who agrees that Breen’s “proofs” were WN-2 varieties, but that the republishing was not intended to create Proofs. But he does acknowledge the noticeable differences in these legendary coins. Excluding some individually rare die marriages, 1852-O is the scarcest date of the early New Orleans Mint half dollars. With a low mintage and only two die marriages, this date is often appreciated for this status. Here is the backstory of why the 1852-o is suck a major Rarity. The New Orleans Branch Mint half dollar mintage in 1851 dropped to one-sixth that of each of the previous eight years. With the discovery of gold in California in 1848, gold poured into the nation’ economy thereby upsetting the gold to silver market ratio. By 1851, the value of silver rose to a point where a silver coin’s silver content was worth more than the face value (e.g., two silver half dollars were worth $1.031?2 in gold). Consequently, large numbers of U.S. silver coins, mainly quarters and half dollars, were pulled from circulation, hoarded, melted, and/or exported for profit. The U.S. Mints reduced their silver coinage output because it cost more than their face value to produce and, if released, they quickly disappeared from commerce; hence, this date’s low half dollar mintage. With continuing national economic difficulties into 1852, the New Orleans Branch Mint further reduced the number of half dollars minted to less than 150,000. This currency crisis was not to ease until the implementation of the Law of 1853 signed by the President on February 21, 1853.

A Corey's Pick, Bid to Win, Don't let it get Away, you might not find its equal Coin. I give this coin my highest recommendation