1836 Capped Bust Half Dollar. Lettered Edge. O-116. Rarity-2. 50/00. MS-62 (PCGS).A silvery pearlescence graces the satiny and cartwheeling complexion of this Mint State Lettered Edge. The devices are bold and without evidence of handling, paired against lustrous and undisturbed fields throughout. A scarce and popular die pairing with the blundered denomination on the reverse and this is one of the top 10 pieces known from these dies according to Steve Herrmans <em style="box-sizing:border-box;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;orphans:2;text-align:start;widows:2;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;word-spacing:0px;">Auction & Mail Bid Prices Realized for Bust Half Dollars 1794 - 1839</em>. The surfaces and luster will please any collector and the engravers error is a delightful feature. One other fact, starting late in 1836 hand engraved dies like this become a thing of the past with the adoption of the new steam driven coining press. Now dies could be made from master hubs, so each device and letter no longer needed to be hand punched into each die, as once a master hub was created, many dies could be made from that work. Thus most of the errors, blunders and individual character of these earlier dies that were hand engraved up until 1836 becomes a thing of the past as this mechanized step removes much of the human element. Thankfully for collectors, blunders still continue to be found, some in the form of mispunched or misplaced dates, mintmarks and even overdates that continue despite the hubbing process.PCGS# 39964.From the Richard Jewell Collection. Earlier ex our November 2014 Baltimore sale, lot 4249; Heritages January 2016 FUN sale, lot 4024.
