What's the mintage of 1796 half cents? (Coin World Article and a few questions)
dbldie55
Posts: 7,710 ✭✭✭✭✭
This is in the February issue, by William Eckberg. Very informative reading.
His conclusions are the No Pole variety was minted after the with pole variety which agrees with early references, but not the later ones.
I do see a couple things about this that does not line up with other references.
One, is the dates of coins delivered. In the article, he lists these as the dates and numbers:
March 12, 1796: 60,000
March 31, 1796: 49,000
May 12, 1796: 3,350
June 8, 1796: 1,740
December 31, 1796: 1,390
Heritage is auctioning the Pogue 1796 No Pole half cent and has a descriptive write up. They list these dates and numbers.
January 22, 1796: 30,000
March 5, 1796: 30,000
March 12, 1796: 2,000
March 18, 1796: 32,000
March 21, 1796: 15,000
April 19, 1796: 3,350
June 8, 1796: 1,740
October 24, 1796: 1,390
The numbers add up, just the dates are different. Curious of the reference for each of these (both conclude the final 3 are 1796 dated and the earlier are dated 1795)
I do have a another question about a date listed in this article.
"On December 27, 1796, President Washington ordered the weight of cents and half cents reduced by 19%."
From this, he comes to the conclusion that all 1795 Plain edge Half Cents were actually minted in 1796, after Washington's order.
I suspect there is a typo and the date of the order is actually December 27, 1795.
This is a very good read, even if you are not a half cent collector. Gives some insights as to why we have as many survivors of the 1796 Half Cents as we do (even if it is so few).
Comments
My 2000 redbook lists the total mintage for both types as 1390. Judging from how many I have seen in my 60+ years of collecting coins, this number seems accurate.
'Brother can you spare a half cent?'
I do not have one of these, still hoping to find one while metal detecting though. Cheers, RickO