1817 Capped Bust Half Dollar. O-105. Rarity-6. VG-10 (PCGS). CAC.A rare and intriguing coin that holds tremendous appeal for advanced early half dollar variety enthusiasts. Both sides are attractively original, dominant mauve and olive-gray patina yielding to lighter silver gray over many of the design elements, especially on the obverse. A few swirls of charcoal are scattered about on the reverse, generally confined to the eagle. Smooth and attractive for the assigned grade. The 1817 Overton-105 variety combines the obverse die of the popular 181.7 O-103 Punctuated Date, here in a later state with the die dot no longer visible, with the reverse of O-104 and O-106, identifiable by two vertical die defect lines at the letter C in the denomination. The present example is an intermediate die state between O-105 and O-105, the obverse with only a single, spindly die crack from the edge through the two lower points of star 9. Stephen J. Herrman (Spring 2019) assigns the O-109 die state the tentative rating of Rarity-6, the finest example in his census an AU-55.From the E. Horatio Morgan Collection.
