1839 50C No Drapery MS(PCGS#6230)

November 2019 Baltimore U.S. Coins Auction

Auctioneer

Stack's Bowers

Lot Number

7201

Grade

MS64

Price

75,000

Lot Description

Lovely 1839 No Drapery Half Dollar Rare Near-Gem Preservation for this One Year Design Type 1839 Liberty Seated Half Dollar. No Drapery. WB-2. Rarity-3. MS-64 (NGC). CAC. OH. Rare and exceptionally beautiful near-Gem preservation for this significant one year design type produced at the inception of the Liberty Seated half dollar series. Highly lustrous with a lively frosty texture, both sides are further adorned with splashes of vivid cobalt blue, pinkish-apricot and silver-lilac iridescence. Fully struck over all features save for a few of the obverse stars, this predominantly smooth and visually appealing coin would do justice to an advanced type set or specialized Liberty Seated half dollar collection. Gobrecht's Liberty Seated design came last to half dollars, three years after its introduction to dollars, two years after it first appeared on dimes and half dimes, and a year after it was first seen on quarter dollars. Half dollars since 1836 had displayed a Gobrecht reworking of the old design by John Reich, with a capped bust of Liberty on the obverse and eagle on the reverse. The reverse design was retained with slight modifications; in 1842; the size of the reverse motto increased notably, a change that would remain until the motif was retired in 1891. Of vital importance to type collectors, the No Drapery design was used exclusively in 1839, and for only a portion of that year. Breen once called any Mint State example "prohibitively rare," and high grade pieces such as this are even more so. Provenance: From the E. Horatio Morgan Collection. NGC Census: 2; 6 finer (MS-66 finest). An unusually large number of grading events in NGC MS-64+ (four) is strongly suggestive of multiple resubmissions of the same coin an effort to secure an MS-65 designation. PCGS# 6230. NGC ID: 24GK. Click here for certification details from NGC.