Fifty cent pieces for 1813, 1819, and 1824 are now worth sixty cents. --Orange County Observer, Hillsborough, North Carolina, July 30, 1881.A spectacular survivor of these dies, made all the more interesting by its significant die clashes and advanced die state. Luster cycles rapidly around both sides, a contrast to the relaxed tones of pale orange, violet-blue, and gold that blend across both sides. Some hairlines are found with proper light, but few marks of any consequence. The extreme luster serves to highlight the centers of each side, drawing the eye to the remarkable clash mark of the reverse shield that dominates the area between Liberty<span style="line-height:1.5;">s ear and neckcurl. Multiple impressions of wingfeathers are noted in the field before her chin, while several retrograde iterations of the final portion of PLURIBUS and the beginning of UNUM fill the space between the bust truncation and date. Radial flowlines push outward, carrying the luster as they do, drawing the stars on the left all the way to the rim and those on the right nearly so. The reverse, also flowlined and somewhat soft at its peripheries, has been lapped to minimize the obviousness of the clash marks, though vestiges survive above, left of, and below the eagle. The reverse remains uncracked, but the obverse fared less well, with a heavy arc crack from the tip of the bust through the left stars to the front of her cap, just beyond the lowest point of star 7. Another crack crosses the date diagonally and hits star 13.</span>The eye appeal of this piece is very different from a specimen struck from fresh, perfect dies. Like the other Capped Bust half dollars in the D. Brent Pogue Collection, it is beautifully toned, pristinely preserved, and a glorious accident of survival in its superb gem grade. Unlike many of the others, this coin draws a sophisticated viewer in through a loupe, examining every crack and clash, inviting a reconstruction of each instance of die against die and steel against steel that left this coin looking as it does.The Overton-109 variety was actually struck after Overton-110. As both marriages show significant successive clashes, the press these dies were mounted on may have had issues with its feeder fingers, the levers that pushed blank planchets into the coining chamber and then pushed them out again after striking. Improperly operating feeder fingers could result in the dies coming together with no planchet between them, the situation that causes die clashing, as well as various sorts of striking errors. The Russell Logan Collection included an 1813 Overton-106 struck drastically off-center. Such errors become much more common (though still very rare today) in 1814; the Logan Collection included two off-center 1814 halves, and that of Henry Hilgard included several more misstrikes on 1814, including both off-center and double struck specimens.The reverse of this piece, despite heavy lapping, shows a suggestion of a second leaf in the two-leaf cluster left of the eagles legs. Specimens that show a bit more lapping remove the second leaf entirely, thus transitioning to Overton-109a, a desirable "single leaf" die state. Capped Bust half specialists enjoy collecting and studying die marriages and die states, and their research on the rarity of each has become highly refined. In the 1880s, when stories of numismatic auctions in the Northeast trickled to small town newspapers like the above-cited Orange County Observer, collectors were still attempting to discern which dates were rare and what varieties existed. The dates mentioned -- 1813, 1819, and 1824 -- are considered no rarer than most other dates today.
