An Uncirculated gem, seldom appears in this condition.— Abe KosoffA light and a lens reveal no flaws on this coin, inviting the eye to ponder this coins near perfection, rather than an inventory of accidents, major or minor, that have befallen it. It must have been something fairly typical when it fell from the dies: intensely frosty and lustrous, both sides perfectly centered, the tiny obverse portrait of Liberty well defined but for the small oval near her temple where the metal was insufficient to fill the recesses of the dies. The softness extends into the short curl behind her neck, and presents the eagles chest with a juvenile smoothness though his wings are well defined. When this coin was struck, it probably looked like most from these dies: sharp at the rims, a little soft at some of the dentils, but full of life and showing the engravers impressive mastery of the human portrait in miniature. The tiny curved lint mark where her jaw joins her cheek is a relic of the care and pride the coiner took in preparing these dies, making sure their tiny steel faces elicited much detail as cleanly and efficiently as possible. In contrast, the areas of raised die spalling below star 11 and around the few stars above it reveal the inherent difficulties in preparing die steel, finishing the dies, and preserving them with neither chip nor crack until theyd finished their duty. A thin die crack through E of UNITED was probably watched carefully by the coiner, who hoped it wouldnt develop into a larger crack that would render his tool useless. No cracks are seen on the obverse, denoting this as an early die state specimen.When the coiner finished, this coin went somewhere. If it went into a bin, it did so gently. If it went to a bank or to a merchant who had made a deposit of foreign coins and asked for small change back, it was never paid out. It found a hiding spot, a resting place, where it was allowed to gather beautiful golden and amber toning that enhanced its frosty look. Whatever its reverse contacted was different from what touched its obverse, giving the reverse pastel pale blue tones, richest at its right periphery, mingled with a golden tone at left more like that found on the obverse. A darker area of toning off her shoulder likely took decades to develop, giving this coin a hallmark, a beauty spot of sorts.There isnt another 1797 15 Star half dime like this one. While Logan and McCloskey note that this variety is the least difficult to obtain in Mint State, David W. Akers adds an appropriate caveat in the Pittman sale catalog, pointing out that this remains a rare issue in Mint State, and a major rarity in this incredible condition. PCGS has only ever graded two pieces better than MS-64, this example at MS-67 and another at MS-66, the last likely the coin sold as NGC MS-66 in the August 1998 Rarities Sale conducted by Bowers and Merena Galleries. The greatest concentration of Mint State coins is in the MS-63 category.This coin traces its provenance to the Adolphe Menjou sale, named for the popular film star who had only a modest consignment in the sale. Most of the silver U.S. rarities were owned by the catalogers, who purchased them from Charles M. Williams, a well-known collector from Cincinnati, who acquired coins from the Newcomer and Green collections in the 1930s. This piece may well have an even more august provenance than what is known and indicated below.
