1793 Liberty Cap Half Cent. Head Left. C-3. Rarity-3. MS-62 BN (PCGS). A delightful jewel that is as rich in history as it is in rarity. Lightly toned overall in iridescent golden-brown, both sides retain considerable faded pink mint color. The latter is best appreciated with the aid of direct lighting, which also calls forth a hard satin texture to the finish. The surfaces are remarkably problem free for this challenging type with none of the typically seen porosity, corrosion or extensive marks. A tiny nick in the lower obverse field close in to the bust truncation and a shallow rim bruise outside the letters LI in LIBERTY are mentioned solely for provenance purposes. Boldly to sharply struck throughout.<p>The 1793 half cent is significant as the first United States half cent, the only issue of the Liberty Cap, Head Left design type and one of just two denominations struck during the Mints first full year of coinage operations (the other is the large cent). Henry Voigt engraved the dies between late April and mid-July 1793, and by mid-May the Mint had already prepared more than 30,000 planchets for this issue, including having their edges lettered. All of the planchets were made from sheet copper. Actual coinage commenced on July 20 and continued sporadically until September 18. On that date the Mint also delivered the last of the Wreath cents, after which its doors closed so that employees could join the exodus of Philadelphians fleeing the yearly yellow fever epidemic that swept the city. When cold winter weather finally allowed the Mint to reopen on November 23, 1793, Robert Scot had been hired as engraver; his dies for the next Liberty Cap half cent issue -- 1794 -- featured a right facing portrait of Liberty.<p>Given its current popularity, it may be surprising that the 1793 half cent seems to have been generally overlooked by contemporary collectors. No notable high grade pieces appeared from English or other European sources in the 20th century, suggesting that few, if any, Mint State examples were set aside by numismatists and others who visited the early United States. It was not until the 1850s that numismatics as a hobby began to gain widespread popularity in the United States and, the earliest known interest in the 1793 half cent as a valuable collectible dates to that decade. In 1855 collector Winslow Howard purchased a lot of two examples in the Pierre Flandin sale, one of the first major numismatic auctions held in the United States. Mr. Howard paid $7 for his two 1793 half cents, a sizeable sum, especially since half cents could still be found in commerce during the 1850s, at least in major Eastern cities like Philadelphia and New York. It is almost certainly the retrieval of coins from circulation during the decade preceding the Civil War that accounts for the majority of 1793 half cents extant, a theory that squares nicely with an extant population comprised almost exclusively of worn coins.<p>Market appearances of Mint State 1793 half cents are few and far between. The Condition Census for the 1793 C-3 dies includes the primary and secondary Pogue specimens (PCGS MS-65 BN and MS-64 BN, respectively), as well as the Eliasberg-ESM specimen (PCGS MS-63 BN) and the offered coin, ex D.L. Hansen Collection. A fitting opening to the early copper lots in the current Rarities Night event, this fabulous Mint State 1793 is destined for inclusion in another world class cabinet. PCGS# 35009. NGC ID: 2222. From the Cardinal Collection Educational Foundation. Earlier ex Leo A. Youngs ANA Sale of August 1959, lot 402; Kagins; Leo A. Young; RARCOAs session of Auction 80, August 1980, lot 1512; later, Heritages Long Beach Signature Sale of February 2002, lot 5018; Heritages Denver Signature Auction of August 2006, lot 5017; Heritages sale of the Jim ONeal Collection of U.S. Type, Part I, April 2014 CSNS Signature Auction, lot 5498; Heritages New York Signature Auction of October-November 2016, lot 5111; D.L. Hansen Collection; David Lawrences Internet Auction #1043, December 2018, lot 1000.
