The 1803 Large 3 Half Dollar is extremely rare in Mint State. — Ron GuthA vividly toned example fashionably blending gold at the rims with hints of blue and orange before yielding to a rose and gray center. The reverse is more subtly blended than the obverse, with bright orange and gold that is richest at center. The cartwheel chases itself around the rim like an ouroboros, unbroken on either side. Though only a few obverse stars at the upper right show central detail, the strike is bold overall, with good detail among the clouds and reverse star cluster, though some sharpness is sacrificed at the junctures of the shield and wings. The surfaces show good freshness and originality, with only minor hairlines and trivial marks noted. A little tick is present on Libertys chin and a single thin hairline scratch crosses the eagles breast. The reverse shows a single crisp clash mark, visible nearly everywhere in the fields, while the clash mark is only evident on the obverse above the date and around Libertys ear. A very thin crack connects the tops of IBERT. There are not many of these in high grade. The finest is a single MS-64 (PCGS), apparently the piece sold as an NGC MS-64 in the July 2004 Heritage sale; no MS-64 now appears on the NGC Census. This example is tied right behind that one with the Eliasberg coin, which last sold in 2006 for $115,000, and another that has not been traced. As noted by Ron Guth at PCGS CoinFacts, The 1803 Large 3 Half Dollar is extremely rare in Mint State, with only five examples certified thus far by PCGS (as of February 2012), a number that increased by one with the submission of this piece. When Russell Logan surveyed 25 major Draped Bust half collections in the mid 1990s, he found 67 1803 half dollars, but not one of them was graded Mint State.
