1836 Capped Bust Half Dollar. Reeded Edge. 50 CENTS. GR-1, the only known dies. Rarity-2. AU-55 (PCGS).A handsome example of this iconic issue with deep blue, violet, and golden patina across both sides. The surfaces are well composed beneath a glass and feature flashes of Mint luster in the protected areas. Sharply defined and delightfully glossy in texture. Though Walter Breen divined a mintage figure of 1,200 circulation strikes for the 1836 Reeded Edge half dollar decades ago, the true figure is undoubtedly several thousand coins higher. Given the population of surviving 1836 Reeded Edge half dollars today, Robert W. Julian has estimated that the mintage was actually closer to 5,000 pieces. Between the legendarily elusive Small Eagle half dollars of 1796 and 1797 and the scarce Philadelphia Mint dates between 1879 and 1890, no other half dollar issue approaches the low mintage of the 1836 Reeded Edge. Beyond its evident historical importance, the 1836 Reeded Edge has always been admired as a rarity. For most of the 19th century, this issue was deemed a pattern, too rare to have been issued for circulation. While listed in J. Hewitt Judds United States Pattern, Trial, and Experimental Pieces</em> as Judd-57, a listing that remains in modern editions out of a sense of tradition, the 1836 Reeded Edge half dollar is now acknowledged as a regular issue coin. The vast majority of survivors show significant wear, Choice AU survivors such as this scarce and always in demand.PCGS# 6175. NGC ID: 2U28.Ex Robert Seigels sale of November 1984, lot 235.
