1796 Draped Bust Half Dollar. Small Eagle. O-101, T-1. Rarity-5-. 15 Stars. EF Details--Altered Surfaces (PCGS). Offered is a desirable Extremely Fine example of a classic rarity among early U.S. Mint half dollar design types. Plenty of bold to sharp striking detail remains to the major design elements, and the strike is well centered with uniformly denticulated borders around both sides. Mentionable softness is confined to the upper right obverse periphery, affecting the letters TY in LIBERTY, and the lower right reverse, where the clouds are soft and the letters CA in AMERICA are difficult to discern at some viewing angles. There is a muted, somewhat matte-like texture, the surfaces retoned in dominant steel-mauve with lighter olive-gray intermingled on the obverse. The appearance is remarkably smooth with no sizable marks; provenance concerns compel us to mention a tiny nick between star 3 and the obverse border, as well as another in the field between the lower left corner of the letter B in LIBERTY and the end of the hair wave atop Libertys head. There are fewer than 100 different examples of the O-101 die marriage believed extant. The specimen offered here is included in the census of known examples published by Jon P. Amato (<em>The Draped Bust Half Dollars of 1796-1797</em>, 2012), where it is listed with coin serial number 123. Tompkins Die Stage 5/2. From the Lincoln Square Collection. Earlier ex Scotsman Auction Co.s Midwest Summer Sale, July 2007, lot 560; Heritages Baltimore, MD ANA Signature Auction, July 2008, lot 1666; Heritages Long Beach Signature Auction, September 2011, lot 3963; Heritages CSNS Signature Auction, April 2012, lot 5113; Heritages CSNS Signature Auction, April 2015, lot 5069.
