1896-O Barber Half Dollar. AU-58 (PCGS). CAC.

An extraordinary offering for the advanced Barber half dollar enthusiast, this is one of the precious few examples of the key date 1896-O to have received CAC approval at the AU grade level. It is a lightly toned, golden-tinged coin with nearly full mint luster to both sides. Sharply struck, and sure to sell for a strong premium. For the connoisseur of high quality coins, the Barber half dollar series of 1892 to 1915 is among the more challenging to collect. Mintages are universally small for the era, the highest single output attributed to the 1908-O with 5,360,000 pieces produced. Most other issues in this series saw fewer than 2 million coins struck, often fewer than 1.5 million. Attrition through circulation was high for the type as a whole, and the vast majority of survivors are in the lowest circulated grades. Only limited numbers of coins escaped extensive commercial use, and this is particularly true for many of the early mintmarked issues from the 1890s. Indeed, the 1896-O is among the more elusive Barber halves in the finer circulated grades. Over the years we have handled only a couple of other coins below the Mint State level whose quality and desirability rival that of the present example.

PCGS# 6475. NGC ID: 24LW.

CAC Population: just 7 in all AU grades, two of which are AU-58.

Estimate: $ 6500