1817 Capped Bust, lettered edge Half Dollar

The 1817/4 is the crown rarity of the series and the only mintage column in it that tells the truth: PCGS gives “N/A”, because nobody knows how many coins came off this obverse before it was pulled. Ten or eleven are known, R-9.5, from a year in which the Mint delivered 1,215,567 half dollars. Fewer survive than the Class I and Class III 1804 dollars combined. Described in print in October 1930 by E. T. Wallis of the California Stamp Company, Los Angeles; “rediscovered” by Al Overton in 1951, offered unsold in his own sale of January 1953 at lot 200, then sold privately that year for $1,500. Auction record $333,500 for the AU53 in November 2004.