<strong>Obv: </strong>Bust of Martha Washington facing right with MARTHA WASHINGTON in the right field. Above is VIRGINIA and below is the date 1759. <strong>Rev:</strong> Three-quarters view of Mount Vernon with MOUNT VERNON below and HOME OF THE WASHINGTON FAMILY inscribed around. Both the obverse and reverse motifs have been heavily obscured by the "waffle" cancellation performed by the U.S. Mints own machinery. Similarly, the cupronickel layer is split in some areas, exposing the underlying copper core. In an effort to replace the 90% silver alloy used in coinage, the Bureau of the Mint experimented with several metal combinations in 1965, employing a standardized and ambiguous design type of Martha Washington on the obverse and Mount Vernon on the reverse across dime-size, quarter-size and half-dollar size "patterns." Though examples of each denomination were encased in acrylic blocks for display purposes and later given to the Smithsonian, no pieces have been official distributed to the public, and this questionable legality might allude to the canceled state of our current example. </p>These designs were resurrected in 1982 and 1985 to produce experimental strikes of cent-size and nickel-size pieces, respectively, and finally once more in 1999 to test compositions for the new dollar coin. Though the design used on the 1999 dollar-size test pieces is similar to the original 1965 motif, there are enough subtle diagnostics to positively differentiate between the two. The present waffled specimen represents one of the few half-dollar-size test pieces available to collectors and deserves careful consideration. </p>,,,
