1853-O Liberty Seated Half Dollar. Arrows and Rays. WB-18. Rarity-3. Doubled Die Reverse. MS-64 (NGC). The New Orleans Mint counterpart to the Philadelphia Mint examples of this type offered above, and a similarly brilliant coin with only the lightest suggestion of pale iridescent tinting evident as the surfaces rotate under a light. The finish is decidedly semi-reflective in the fields, softly frosted on the design elements, and some semblance of cameo contrast is appreciable at direct viewing angles. Smartly impressed with razor sharp detail from the rims to the centers.<p>The largest port and commercial center in the Antebellum South, New Orleans was one of the primary entry points for silver specie taken in through international commerce in the decades preceding the Civil War. Most of the 1,328,000 Arrows and Rays half dollars struck for the 1853-O issue came from melted down foreign coins and "old tenor" U.S. Mint coins that were sold to the mint. Heavy domestic circulation claimed most of these newly minted half dollars, although it is likely that many were hoarded, exported, and eventually melted after the outbreak of civil war in 1861. This issue is far scarcer than its Philadelphia Mint counterpart, especially in Mint State, and is a particular favorite of specialists in Liberty Seated coinage.<p>WB-15 is a minor Doubled Die Reverse variety with doubling evident within the upper feathers of the eagles left wing. The present example represents an earlier reverse die state, the peripheral crack from the border into the uppermost arrow head not as developed as seen on the 2013 Bugert plate coin. PCGS# 6276. NGC ID: 24JK. NGC Census: 8; 2 finer (both MS-65). The corresponding PCGS Population is similar at 7/1 (MS-65 finest). From the Arlington Collection.
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