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Coins/ Half Dollars / Early Half Dollars/ 1803

FINENESS .8924ASW 0.38672 OZT13.48 G

Overview History Die Marriages Key Dates Collecting Grading Checklist References

Issue RecordPRE-1807Philadelphia89.24% Silver1 of 39 issues

1803 Draped Bust, Heraldic Eagle Half Dollar

The series' live fossil. The Mint's own abstract for calendar 1803 gives 31,715, all of it in the September quarter. PCGS carries 188,234 on both the Large 3 and the Small 3 — and 31,715 + 156,519 (the 1804 delivery) = 188,234 exactly. Survival by variety: Large 3 1,000 / 6 / 0 at R-5.0; Small 3 300 / 2 / 0 at R-6.4.

1803 early half dollars — obverse and reverse

The numbers, and what kind of numbers they are

Every figure carries its evidence class. Press a class to open the record behind it — what it rests on, by what method, and what the series says you should not conclude from it.

RECORDED DELIVERY

31,715

The Mint recorded what the Chief Coiner DELIVERED in a calendar year, not what it struck bearing a date. Where the registry combines years, the split is a reconstruction and the class says so.

DATED ATTRIBUTION

188,234

What the trade assigns to coins bearing this date. A modern allocation by an outside authority, not a federal record.

ESTIMATED SURVIVORS

—

An estimate of how many still exist in any grade, not a count of coins anyone has seen. Thirteen of this series' thirty-nine issues carry no census at all and show none.

What the record asserts

The figures above are measurements. This is the proposition they support, in the Archive's own claim vocabulary — a different scale from the figure classes, because a claim can be probable where the number behind it is exact.

CLAIMThe 1803 half-dollar mintage figure of 188,234 used in the modern trade literature exceeds the Mint's own recorded CY1803 delivery of 31,715 by exactly 156,519, the Mint's recorded CY1804 half-dollar delivery.

STATUSCONFIRMED — the Archive's assessment of the proposition, not of the arithmetic.

CLAIM IDearly-halves-1803-published-mintage-contains-1804-delivery

Specifications

SpecificationValue

DENOMINATIONHalf Dollar

DESIGNERRobert Scot (Flowing Hair and Heraldic Eagle) · Robert Scot with John Eckstein (Draped Bust) · John Reich (Capped Bust)

COMPOSITION89.24% silver, 10.76% copper — 185⅝ grains of pure silver in 208 grains of standard silver

WEIGHT13.48 g

SILVER CONTENT0.38672 ozt

DIAMETERNot fixed by statute. The Act of April 2, 1792 specifies weight and fineness and says nothing about diameter; surviving coins run to roughly 32–33 mm.

EDGELettered — FIFTY CENTS OR HALF A DOLLAR

MINTPhiladelphia only — no branch mint existed until 1838

MINT MARKNone. No early half dollar carries a mint mark.

DIE MARRIAGESLarge 3 and Small 3

The primary record

Every document behind the figures above. Where OunceDesk holds a copy, the row opens it.

Report of the Director of the Mint for calendar 1803
Held in the Archive · behind recorded delivery

PCGS CoinFacts
External authority — not held by OunceDesk · behind dated attribution

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