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Coins/ Half Dollars / Early Half Dollars/ 1815

FINENESS .8924ASW 0.38672 OZT13.48 G

Overview History Die Marriages Key Dates Collecting Grading Checklist References

Issue RecordKEY DATEPhiladelphia89.24% Silver1 of 39 issues

1815 Capped Bust, lettered edge Half Dollar

The whole delivery-versus-date problem in one coin. Every 1815 half dollar is an overdate, 5 over 2; the Mint delivered none in calendar 1815 and 47,150 in calendar 1816; and no half dollar bears the date 1816, because a barrel of wood ashes was leaned against a wooden wall on the night of January 11, 1816. PCGS estimates 800 known at R-5.4. The Economite hoard held 100 of them.

1815 · Capped Bust, lettered edge Half Dollar

1815Photography pending

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

47,150

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

47,150

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

ESTIMATED SURVIVORS

800

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.

CLAIMNo half dollars were delivered in calendar 1815; the 47,150 half dollars dated 1815 (all overdated 1815/2) were delivered in calendar 1816, and no half dollar bears the date 1816.

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

CLAIM IDearly-halves-1815-delivered-in-1816

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 MARRIAGESEvery 1815 half dollar is the 1815/2 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 1816
Held in the Archive · behind recorded delivery

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

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