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Coins/ Half Dollars / Early Half Dollars/ 1820

FINENESS .8924ASW 0.38672 OZT13.48 G

Overview History Die Marriages Key Dates Collecting Grading Checklist References

Issue RecordWORKHORSEPhiladelphia89.24% Silver1 of 39 issues

1820 Capped Bust, lettered edge Half Dollar

The Mint's smallest half-dollar year of the Capped Bust era, and Patterson explained it as an operations problem rather than a policy one: the year's coinage “has, in fact, been the work of no more than nine months” for want of deposits. PCGS publishes no plain-date estimate; the 1820/19 Curl Base 2 runs 800 / 20 / 4 at R-5.4.

1820 · Capped Bust, lettered edge Half Dollar

1820Photography 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

751,122

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

751,122

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.

DIE MARRIAGES

1820

How many obverse/reverse die pairings are catalogued for this issue. A marriage is a distinct pair of hand-cut dies, which is what makes these coins collectable by variety rather than by date alone.

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 MARRIAGES1820/19 in Square Base 2 and Curl Base 2

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 1820
Held in the Archive · behind recorded delivery

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

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