“All poor, free persons, disordered in body topically or generally, and applying for advice, shall receive it gratis; all others, bond or free, shall receive it on payment of half a dollar, at each attendance, for the use of the institution.” — “Rules for the Dispensary,” Enactments by the Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia, 1827 Another prize from the Eliasberg Collection, this half dollar has toned a lustrous glossy light pewter gray, with surfaces that are rich with cartwheel and framed by attractive peripheral toning highlights. The reverse shows greater variation in toning than the obverse, incorporating shades of pale green, gold, and amber. The strike is good, though not full, showing strong centers on the stars at the left obverse, good central detail on both sides, and some localized softness in areas like the curls beneath LIBERTY and the right wingpit. The originality is excellent, as expected with this provenance, and the frost is unbroken. A circular depression, present since the moment of coining, is noted in the field near Liberty’s chin. A light abrasion is seen on the lowest arrowhead, and an old dig well hidden on Liberty’s shoulder. The fields are far more pristine than usually encountered at this grade. This is a very attractive example of the Curl Base 2, a characteristic found on just two die marriages (Overton-146 and Overton-147) that share a single distinctive obverse. While this variety, Overton-147, is the rarer of the two by a considerable margin, neither of them is common in high grade. PCGS has assigned a Mint State grade to a Square Base 2 1827 half dollar over 450 times. The total population of 1827 Curl Base 2 half dollars in Mint State grades is 13, a figure that likely includes duplication, making a Curl Base 2 1827 half dollar at least 35 times rarer than its Square Base 2 counterparts in Mint State. In MS-65, just two coins have been certified, both examples of the O-147 die variety: the Harold S. Bareford-James Bennett Pryor coin and the example in the Dale Friend Collection. This piece is one of only four certified as MS-64 by PCGS, only two of which have sold at public auction in the last 15 years. The Eliasberg catalog points out an interesting detail on the edge of this coin, the sort of characteristic that is rarely noticed or appreciated in the era of sealed encapsulations. The two edge dies were not correctly aligned before this planchet was run through the edge mill, causing them to overlap slightly and produce an edge device that reads FIFTY CENTS ORALF DOLLAR. Such errors are not uncommon, though they are rarely noted today. Any 1827 Curl Base 2 half dollar in high grade is a special coin. Oddly, though O-146 is more common in most grades, the more generally elusive O-147 seems to have a greater population in choice and gem Mint State. As a scarce naked-eye variety of interest to specialists and non-specialists alike, the O-147 has earned inclusion among Souders’ Top 100. While this example is not the finest known example from these dies, it is undoubtedly of Condition Census quality and also bears the longest and richest provenance of any example of the variety, pedigreed to before the turn of the 20th century via the Clapp and Eliasberg collections to the famous M.A. Brown sale of 1897. PCGS# 39750.
