Abundant mint color glows from highly lustrous surfaces, mellowed to olive on the right side of the obverse but barely dimmed elsewhere. The central reverse shows some golden undertones, adding to the dramatic aesthetic appeal. Aside from a tiny speck below the left side of the 4 in the date and a few microscopic hairlines on the portrait, neither side shows significant flaws. The strike is excellent, though the peripheries have softened due to the state of the obverse and reverse dies, both in their second use in the Cohen-12 marriage. This obverse was previously used in the 1804 Cohen-10 combination, while the stemless reverse was earlier seen on Cohen-13 and would appear subsequently in the 1805 Cohen-1 and 1806 Cohen-1 marriages. Manley identifies just one die state for all known Cohen-12s, though he does acknowledge varied die alignments. The reverse of this piece is rotated about 5 degrees counterclockwise.This is the single finest 1804 half cent and one of three MS-66 RB coins of this design type graded by PCGS. The Missouri Cabinet included only one 1804 half cent graded finer than MS-65: the MS-66 BN Cohen-8 offered in the previous lot. The Missouri Cabinet specimen of this variety, graded MS-65+ BN (PCGS), was called "finest known [1804 Cohen-12] by a small margin," though the cataloger does not seem to have known about this coin, which has not seen a public auction appearance in at least two decades, if ever.