Why are high grade bust Half Dollars and Half Dimes relatively common?
NHSBaseball
Posts: 2,470 ✭
As I was looking through auctions and dealer websites it occurred to me that it is relatively easy to find Bust Half Dollars and Half Dimes in the AU to MS grades, while it was much more difficult and expensive to find Bust quarters and dimes in the same grades. Why do you think this is?
I sort of understand the Half Dollars as they were like the Morgan Dollars of their day and used in large bank to bank transactions. They also seem to have had a higher and more consistent mintage than the other denominations.
What I can't understand is the relative ease with which half dimes can be found in these grades. Every historical reference I read talks about the chronic shortage of circulating coinage in the era up until the Civil War. I don't think it can be explained by the setting aside by collectors, because American coin collecting was in its infancy and half dimes have never attracted a lot of collector interest in the meantime. So my question is, who pulled them out of circulation and why?
I sort of understand the Half Dollars as they were like the Morgan Dollars of their day and used in large bank to bank transactions. They also seem to have had a higher and more consistent mintage than the other denominations.
What I can't understand is the relative ease with which half dimes can be found in these grades. Every historical reference I read talks about the chronic shortage of circulating coinage in the era up until the Civil War. I don't think it can be explained by the setting aside by collectors, because American coin collecting was in its infancy and half dimes have never attracted a lot of collector interest in the meantime. So my question is, who pulled them out of circulation and why?
"College men from LSU- went in dumb, come out dumb too..."
-Randy Newman
-Randy Newman
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Comments
<< <i>The simple answer is, they didn't circulate. I believe in both cases they were held in large numbers by the Mint. >>
Not the mint as much as banks, there were few gold coins or silver dollars around so if banks wanted to transfer money back and forth half dollars were the easiest way to do it since that was the largest denomination available in quantity for most of the early 19th century.
<< <i>The simple answer is, they didn't circulate. I believe in both cases they were held in large numbers by the Mint. >>
Due to the stoppage of minting Bust Dollars in 1804-1805 (due to their heavy export), Bust Halves were the highest silver denomination being produced from 1805-1836. Bust Halves were held mostly by Banks, not the mint...The banks held them to back their paper currency and for bank to bank transactions. There were still bags of Bust Halves being discovered in bank vaults after 1900 and maybe even up until the 1920's.
Half Dimes did not circulate, especially away from the east coast. The mint did not have a bullion fund to produce a stock supply of these coins (except for possibly a small amount through mint employees deposits) until 1837. These coins were hoarded, especially during the late 1830's, for the same reason people are buying silver bullion now, as a storage of value against the poor economy.
Bust Quarters circulated heavily as they were the work horse of the the economy and the largest silver denomination available to the public.
Dimes were the next highest silver denomination and followed the path of the quarters and were used in making change.
QN
Go to Early United States Coins - to order the New "Early United States Half Dollar Vol. 1 / 1794-1807" book or the 1st new Bust Quarter book!
<< <i>Don't know about the reasons but in my half dime travels I've found many more nice MS bust half dimes out there for sale than I have nice AU bust half dimes. Somebody was saving them straight from the bank/mint for some reason. With some exceptions of course. Try finding an AU or MS 1837 bust half dime...not an easy task compared to the other years...then try finding an eye appealing one....that is a darn difficult thing to do. >>
The LM-4 small 5c. in particular is difficult to locate above XF- I got a great looking XF raw from Brian Greer and will have to be satisfied with that one for the foreseeable future.
What I can't figure out is why banks wouldn't circulate half dimes, unless maybe it was because of their small size and ease of storage.
-Randy Newman