1839 Liberty Seated Half Dollar. No Drapery. WB-1. Rarity-3. MS-63 (NGC).This gorgeous example delivers a vibrant palette of soft iridescence on each side. The obverse blooms with silver-rose tones that hint toward powder blue at the borders, while the reverse is awash in a blend of warmer rose-gray, steel-olive and cobalt blue. Silken luster blankets the devices and subtly contrasts the modestly reflective fields, imparting subtle cameo-like contrast when the coin is observed with the aid of direct lighting. This issue is typically encountered with noticeable strike weakness; not so here, as razor sharp to full definition even extends to the top of Libertys head and the surrounding stars on the obverse, as well as the eagles right leg and talon on the reverse. The die state is very early for the WB-1 attribution, with no trace of cracks on the reverse. Delightful in every respect and among the finest known survivors of this transitional one-year design type.<p>The 1839 No Drapery half dollar was a short-lived anomaly. While the lower denominations of the half dime, dime, and quarter depicted a seductive Liberty for several years, this scantily clad effigy is visible on only a portion of the 1839-dated half dollars. The lower denominations had abandoned the Capped Bust design type in 1837 (half dime and dime) and 1838 (quarter), though the half dollar had continued to embrace said design until the cusp of the 1840s. When Christian Gobrechts motif finally came to the half dollar in 1839, it remained truer to the artists original design than that seen on any coin after the elegant Gobrecht dollars of 1836 to 1839. Nevertheless, the Mint did add drapery folds below Libertys left elbow before the end of 1839, which proved to be far less tinkering to the basic Liberty Seated motif than that eventually carried out on the other silver denominations. This slightly modified With Drapery design would be used on the half dollar until the conclusion of the Liberty Seated series in 1891.<p>Though this alteration allowed for a modest improvement to the overall aesthetics, John Dannreuther suggests that this was likely an effort to enhance striking for the half dollar. Much like the problems encountered with the inaugural issues of the Peace dollar and the High Relief Saint-Gaudens double eagles in the early 20th century, proper striking of the No Drapery half dollar was tedious. Though uniform definition was easy to maintain on the smaller planchets of lesser denominations like the dime and half dime, the central elements of the No Drapery half dollar were often weak, as noted above.<p>As the only Liberty Seated half dollar issue that lacks the extra drapery folds by design (a number of die varieties of later issues have No Drapery die states), the popularity of the 1839 No Drapey with advanced collectors knows no bounds. Few were saved by the contemporary public or managed to survive by chance, and your cataloger (JLA) believes that the high-side estimate of 65 or so Mint State examples published in Q. David Bowers 2016 <em>Guide Book of Liberty Seated Silver Coin</em>s is too aggressive. Examples are almost certainly rarer, especially from a market availability standpoint, and few offer the quality and eye appeal of this dazzling Choice MS-63 certified by NGC.PCGS# 6230. NGC ID: 24GK.
