1825 1/2C, BN MS(PCGS#1141)

Spring 2026 Showcase Auction U.S. Coins

Auctioneer

Stack's Bowers

Lot Number

2054

Grade

MS65BN

Price

7,200

Lot Description

Manley Die State 1.0, scarce, with the end of the wreath stem on the reverse well struck. This piece is well struck overall, in fact, with just a touch of softness within the wreath at lower right and all other features sharply to fully rendered. Both sides also sport full, softly frosted mint luster. Beautifully toned in iridescent steel-brown and warmer orange-copper, the surfaces are smooth as expected for the assigned grade.<p>Limited demand for circulation prompted the Mint to halt half cent coinage after 1811. Montroville W. Dickeson related in 1860:<p><em>People had acquired the habit of disregarding fractions, and had no disposition to renew them for making change. We can recollect, however, when in some portions of our country the half cent was rigidly exacted, and where many a war of words, and sometimes of fists, grew out of such a controversy.</em><p>This seems as good a reason as any to explain Mint Director Samuel Moore's decision to order more half cent planchets from Matthew Boulton in 1824. Coinage resumed in 1825, but unlike for the earlier Classic Head issues, the mintages for the late dates can only be estimated due to inconsistency in the Mint's records. For the 1825, represented here, Bill Eckberg (2019) estimates the mintage at 150,000 pieces, as opposed to the calendar year mintage of 63,000 reported by the Mint. The C-2 variety is the more common of the two known and, with 4,100 coins extant (again per Eckberg), probably accounted for 135,000 or so of the approximate 150,000-piece mintage. Few survivors from these dies, however, rival or surpass the Widmer Family specimen in terms of quality or eye appeal.