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Coins/ Half Dollars / Early Half Dollars/ 1805

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

1805 Draped Bust, Heraldic Eagle Half Dollar

The year the Mint decided to coin half dollars in preference to dollars — a decision recorded twenty-one years later in the Director's report for 1826. The 1805/4 overdate (500 / 3 / 2 at R-6.0) is the evidence Crosby used in 1891 to argue that 1804 half dollars must exist.

1805 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

211,722

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

211,722

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

ESTIMATED SURVIVORS

2,000

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.

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 MARRIAGESIncludes the 1805/4 overdate

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 1805
Held in the Archive · behind recorded delivery

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

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