1793 1/2C Cohen 4, BN MS(PCGS#35012)

February 2025 Showcase Auction - U.S. Coins

拍卖行

Stack's Bowers

批号

1002

等级

MS65BN

价格

1,745,469

详细说明

An absolute jewel, with exceptional quality and virtually unheard of eye appeal for a 1793 Liberty Cap half cent. Both sides are fully defined from a well centered impression that has imparted complete border beading and broad outer margins around both sides. Every strand of Liberty's hair and each leaf in the wreath are crisply delineated. The surfaces show excellent luster, the obverse semi-prooflike and the reverse more frosty in texture, and there is abundant good gloss. Beautiful autumn-brown patina blankets both sides and makes a lovely impression. The surfaces are remarkably smooth with hardly any blemishes, as one should expect given the MS-65 grade assigned by PCGS. A few trivial disturbances are present along the edge below the digits 17 in the date; these features have been described as "rim nicks" in at least one earlier auction appearance of this coin, although close inspection with a loupe suggests to this cataloger (JLA) that these are minor planchet flaws and, hence, as made. Regardless, the in-hand appearance of this coin is one of numismatic perfection for an early date United States Mint copper, and the eye appeal is truly extraordinary. Manley Die State 1.0, without the die defect or rust lump that later develops at the top of the digit 7 in the date.<p>The 1793 half cent is significant as the first United States half cent, the only issue of the Liberty Cap, Head Left design type and one of just two denominations struck during the Mint's first full year of coinage operations (the other is the large cent). Henry Voigt engraved the dies between late April and mid-July 1793, and by mid-May the Mint had already prepared more than 30,000 planchets for this issue, including having their edges lettered. All of the planchets were made from sheet copper. Actual coinage commenced on July 19, with the first 7,000 examples delivered to the treasurer the following day. An additional 24,934 pieces were struck July 23 through 25, and delivered on July 26, for a total mintage of 31,934 coins for the 1793 half cent issue. After a delivery of Liberty Cap <em><strong>cents</strong></em> on September 18, the Mint closed its doors so that employees could join the exodus of Philadelphians fleeing the yearly yellow fever epidemic that swept the city. When cold winter weather finally allowed the Mint to reopen on November 23, 1793, Robert Scot had been hired as engraver; his dies for the next Liberty Cap half cent issue - 1794 - featured a right facing portrait of Liberty.<p>The Mint employed two obverse and three reverse dies in four pairings to coin the 1793 half cent issue. Writing in the 2019 reference <em>The Half Cent, 1793-1857: The Story of America's Greatest Little Coin</em>, William R. Eckberg opines that each of the four varieties were struck exclusively on each of the four days that this issue was struck:<p>-July 19 = Cohen-1<p>-July 23 = Cohen-2<p>-July 24 = Cohen-3<p>-July 25 = Cohen-4<p>The Cohen-4 variety offered here features the second of two uses of Obverse 2 for the issue (the first is C-3), and the only use of Reverse C. An extra lock of hair at the rear of the bust truncation easily identifies this obverse, while the reverse is attributable by the extremely long tails to both of the ribbon ends at the base of the wreath. Bill Eckberg accounts for 250 to 325 survivors of the C-4 variety in all grades, a similar estimate to that provided for the other three die pairings. Most survivors are well worn, if not also impaired from heavy commercial use.<p>The fact that the 1793 half cent seems to have been generally overlooked by contemporary collectors might be surprising for some numismatists to read given the issue's current popularity. No notable high grade pieces appeared from English or other European sources in the 20th century, suggesting that few, if any, Mint State examples were set aside by numismatists and others who visited the early United States. It was not until the 1850s that numismatics as a hobby began to gain widespread popularity in the United States, and the earliest known interest in the 1793 half cent as a valuable collectible dates to that decade. In 1855 collector Winslow Howard purchased a lot of two examples in the Pierre Flandin sale, one of the first major numismatic auctions held in the United States. Mr. Howard paid $7 for his two 1793 half cents, a sizable sum, especially since half cents could still be found in commerce during the 1850s, at least in major Eastern cities like Philadelphia and New York. It is almost certainly the retrieval of coins from circulation during the decade preceding the Civil War that accounts for the majority of 1793 half cents extant, a theory that squares nicely with an extant population comprised almost exclusively of worn coins.<p>Market appearances of Mint State 1793 half cents are few and far between; since 2009 we have offered only 10 different uncirculated coins through auction, including the present example. The Breen-Hanson Condition Census for the 1793 C-4 variety published in 1983 includes eight coins described as "Uncirculated." The modern Condition Census is topped by the Missouri Cabinet specimen in PCGS MS-66 BN followed by the present example in PCGS MS-65 BN, ex Parmelee, Brobston, Gardner and McGuigan. The latter is listed with the very conservative grade of About Uncirculated in the Breen-Hanson Condition Census, to account for the aforementioned flaws below the digits 17 in the date (also described as "edge nicks" therein). The Pogue specimen of the 1793 half cent was also a PCGS MS-65 BN, but from the Cohen-3 pairing.<p>A stunning 1793 half cent in all regards, this fabulous Gem is destined for inclusion in another world class cabinet. It will serve equally well as an extraordinary type coin or, in a more specialized collection, a virtually unimprovable example from the Cohen-4 dies.