1797 Draped Bust Half Dollar. Small Eagle. O-101a, T-1. Rarity-4+. 15 Stars. VF-20 (NGC). Amato 443. A quite pleasing survivor from this prized mintage with lavender-grey toning atop deep slate surfaces. Nicely defined at center despite the typical weakness at the right borders of each side. As-made adjustment marks are visible throughout Libertys hair and stars 9 to 11, but the surfaces remain free of distracting post-mint blemishes. Overall smooth and displaying a late die stage called Stage 4/5 by Tompkins. The cud is fully developed at star 2 but the crack at stars 4, 5 and 6 is just barely discernible. This piece is an historic and well documented example, traceable back to Mayflower Coin Auctions sale of December 1967. The 1797 half dollar is a profoundly enigmatic issue whose intrigue is only overshadowed by its rarity. Echoing the symbolism portrayed by the flag of the United States, the earliest coins of the United States Mint depicted a star count that tried at best to mirror the number of states belonging to the Union at the time of striking. Fittingly so, the half dollars of 1794 and 1795 display 15 stars on the obverse-- a number justified by Kentuckys admission on June 1st 1792. In anticipation of 1796s half dollar mintage, officials prepared a 1796-dated 15-star die for use, though no half dollars were struck in said year. However, by the time mintage resumed in the beginning of 1797, Tennessee had already joined the Union on June 1st of 1796 and a 16-stars motif was appropriate. Never to be wasteful, the Mint employed this wrongly dated and wrongly starred obverse, eventually transitioning to a 1796-dated 16-star obverse by some other combination of misguidance. Then, most curiously, a third die was created to finish out the 1797 half dollar production year; properly dated 1797, though ornamented with just 15 stars on the obverse. Several theories and conjectures have emerged to explain how this blundered regression might have occurred, though whether terribly complex or astoundingly simple, the error in star-count for the 1797 Draped Bust half dollar has left numismatic scholars scratching their heads for the past two centuries.According to Steve M. Tompkins (2015), the total mintage for half dollars of this date is approximately 1,984 coins, all of which were delivered as part of Warrant 90 on May 26, 1797. This warrant included an additional 1,000 half dollars that the author believes were struck from 1796-dated dies. Survivors are scarce and eagerly sought in all grades as representatives of the brief and challenging Draped Bust, Small Eagle half dollar type of 1796 to 1797. Ex Mayflower Coin Auctions sale of December 1967, lot 734.
