Abundant faded traces of mint color have mostly crossed over to gold, olive, and steel, though some red persists around the stars at left. Highly lustrous and attractive, this piece has a better strike than most. All stars show at least some central detail and most show all of it. Full rings of denticles frame both sides, and Libertys portrait is bold. STAT is a bit soft, with the light die crack connecting those letters at their tops likely to blame. The die state is nice and early, equivalent to Manley 1.0. The crack across Libertys portrait is a relic of the cracked portrait hub that made this obverse and the obverse for 1809 Cohen-4.Over a million half cents were struck in 1809, the single largest annual mintage over the denominations history. Most of these went into circulation and stayed there. While slightly more than 200,000 were struck in 1810, and a token 63,140 were issued in 1811, these dates would be the last half cents coined until 1825. While the denomination was revived with the same designs, the country had changed drastically, from an ocean-hugging nation of 17 states to a trans-Mississippi union of 25. Despite the enormous changes between 1809 and 1825, the presidents were Virginians the entire time.
