1861 Confederate States of America. DeWitt-C 1861-2. Silver. AU-55 (NGC). 13 mm. Pierced for suspension. A lovely example of this historic and eagerly sought type. Frosty and lustrous for the grade, both sides exhibit delicate pinkish-apricot and powder blue undertones to dominant pearl-gray patina. The lower borders are a tad soft, but other areas are bold, and all major features are appreciable. This is the so-called "Confederate half dime," a type described in Sullivan-DeWitt (1981) as, "Undoubtedly...struck in the early days of the Confederacy when its leaders hoped to bring no less than fifteen states into the Confederacy under a cotton economy." Rare.
