1850 1/2C C-1, BN MS(PCGS#35321)

1850 1/2C C-1, BN MS (PCGS#35321)

February 2020 Pre-Long Beach U.S. & World Coin Auction #115

Lot Description: Lot 519 1850 C-1 R2-. PCGS graded MS-64 Brown. CAC.Choice medium brown and light chocolate with faded mint red in a few of the protected areas. The fields are hard and reflective and this half cent has superb eye appeal. The only marks are faint traces of an old fingerprint between the date and star 13 and a shallow low spot at the dentil tips off the end of the wreath stem (as struck). Shallow low spots are quite common on 1850 half cents for some reason, and from our experience true mint state examples of the date are quite rare, clearly the rarest of the Braided Hair type 1849-1857. Very early die state. There is a partial knife rim at the top of the obverse and the edges are squared (similar to the proof strikes). The finest 1850 business strike in the Missouri Cabinet was in a PCGS "AU Details Cleaning" holder and it brought $1121.25 in our 1/29/2014 sale (lot 200). Your cataloger has not seen a better one than the piece being offered here, and it comes with a great provenance for a half cent. Our grade is MS63. The attribution and Widok Collection provenance are noted on the PCGS label. PCGS population 3; none finer. (PCGS # 35321) Value $1,500 - UP Ex Lester Merkin 1959-Walter Breen Collection-Ray Munde-Roger S. Cohen, Jr., Superior 2/2/1992:365-The Widok Collection (lot ticket included).