HALF DOLLAR 1838-1839 Capped Bust, HALF DOL - More Details
Begging for change, but without the room to do it, Gobrecht elected to replace the denomination note, 50 CENTS, with HALF DOL. Maybe the act of cutting the word dollar in half, is a sign of the "cents of humor" Gobrecht had as a designer. After all, he was the creator of the "Silly Head" and "Boopy Head" found on the 1839 CENT.
Certain other changes were affected in the thickness of the reverse letters and the details of the eagle. For the first time, half dollars were struck at a branch mint, New Orleans, The 1838-0 half dollar is one of Americas prime rarities. It is believed that just 20 were struck, nearly all of which had prooflike surfaces. In the following year, 1839, a more generous mintage of 178,976 Half Dollars occurred at New Orleans.
The type set collector will probably seek an example of the 1838 or 1839 Philadelphia issue, each of which was minted to the extent of more than a million. Examples are readily available in grades from Very Good through Extremely Fine.
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