1866-S Liberty Seated Half Dime. V-1, the only known dies. Misplaced Date. MS-64 (PCGS). CAC. Smooth satin surfaces are sharply struck and essentially brilliant. While the early Reconstruction era saw the continued withholding of silver coins from circulation in the East and Midwest, on the West Coast it was business as usual with silver (and gold) coinage continuing to see widespread commercial use. In keeping with this situation, which had begun early in the Civil War, the San Francisco Mint produced more half dimes than the Philadelphia Mint for most years during the 1860s. In 1866 for example, the California branch mint struck 120,000 half dimes, compared to only 10,000 circulation strikes of this denomination at the main facility in Philadelphia. Yet even despite the disparity between these totals, both issues are of roughly equal rarity in both circulated and Mint State grades. Attrition through circulation and melting claimed much of the 1866-S mintage, EF to AU examples ranked Rarity-4 and Mint State survivors Rarity-5 (per Al Blythe, 1992). All known examples of the 1866-S half dime were struck from a blundered obverse die with traces of a misplaced 18 within the bottom of the drapery between the shield point and the pendant. From our (Stacks) June Sale of 1973, lot 1036. Lot tag included.
