1792 Half Disme. LM-1, Judd-7, Pollock-7. Rarity-4. Fine Details--Tooled (CACG).
Smith-Orosz-Augsburger Unlisted. Obv: A bust of Liberty with short, curly hair faces left, the date 1792 in small digits immediately below the curved truncation of the bust. The legend LIB. PAR. OF SCIENCE & INDUSTRY is around the border, an abbreviation of "Liberty, parent of science and industry." Rev: A small eagle with spread wings faces to the left with the denomination HALF DISME and a single star below. The legend UNI. STATES OF AMERICA encircles most of the reverse periphery. All 1792 half dimes except for the unique copper impression (Judd-8) are struck in silver with a diagonally reeded edge, and a single set of dies was used to complete the entire mintage of approximately 1,500 pieces. The coins were struck with medallic alignment. An issue with tremendous collector appeal at all levels of preservation, the coin offered here will find many eager buyers in today's market. It is not included in the Smith-Orosz-Augsburger census published in the 2017 reference 1792: Birth of a Nation's Coinage. Both sides present quite nicely for the assigned grade, thanks predominantly to an overlay of warm pewter gray toning that blends with blushes of lighter pearl gray in the left obverse and reverse field areas. The obverse is the better centered of the two sides, although it is still a bit off center to 7 o'clock with scant denticulation at lower left and the tops of the & and letters IN fading into the border. Otherwise we note wear commensurate with the assigned grade on this side of the coin, all major design elements partially if not fully outlined and readily appreciable. There are a few scattered blemishes, most notably a depression in the field before Liberty's chin and a vertical pin scratch behind the bridge of the nose. The reverse impression is more significantly off center, in this case to 12 o'clock. The peripheral detail from 9:30 to 3 o'clock is faint to absent, a combination of die state (see below) and uneven wear caused by the off center strike. Much of the eagle is outlined, but its left wing can be difficult to discern. The denomination HALF DISME is fully legible, star below bold, letters STATES OF AMER in the legend faint to illegible. A few fine, old pin scratches above and below the eagle's right wing are noted, and the overall texture on this side of the coin is curious to suggest tooling. The amount of wear on this coin precludes a definitive die state attribution, as the weakness at the upper right reverse prevents identification of the beginning of a possible die crack from the left upright of the first letter M in AMERICA. If present at all, however, this crack does not extend to the letter E in DISME, so at latest this is a Die State 2-A coin. It is at earliest a Die State 1-B example with the reverse die noticeably failing and sinking through the right field area, explaining the extreme softness to the eagle's left wing noted above. Coins from both of these die states are included in the 1,500 pieces received by Thomas Jefferson on July 13, 1792. These constitute the first striking period for the issue, as defined by Smith-Orosz-Augsburger, survivors of which are the most historically significant from an issue that enjoys deep connections to the nation's Founding Fathers and has long been among the most coveted of all federally issued coins regardless of condition.
PCGS# 11020. NGC ID: 22ZS.

Estimate: $30000