1804 1/2C Plain 4 No Stems, RB MS(PCGS#1064)

Spring 2026 Showcase Auction U.S. Coins

Auctioneer

Stack's Bowers

Lot Number

2037

Grade

MS63RB

Price

4,800

Lot Description

Manley Die State 2.0. Plenty of deep orange mint color remains on surfaces that also show blushes of warm steel-brown and brighter pinkish-rose patina. Hard and frosty, both sides are uncommonly smooth for the grade with no marks or other blemishes of note. The strike is a tad soft at upper right reverse, but to no detriment given the sharpness of detail seen elsewhere.<p>This is an extremely popular, easily attributable variety of the 1804 Draped Bust half cent. The Plain 4 date logotype combined with the Stemless Wreath reverse immediately identifies the Cohen-13 die marriage, the only one of this <em>Guide Boo</em>k variety. This is also the most plentiful die marriage of the issue. Given the number of Mint State coins known Walter Breen (<em>Walter Breen's Encyclopedia of United States Half Cents: 1793-1857</em>, 1983) believed that a hoard of Uncirculated examples may have existed at one time. More modern scholarship on this subject is provided by William R. Eckberg in his 2019 reference <em>The Half Cent, 1793-1857: The Story of America's Greatest Little Coin</em>, in which an estimate of more than 100 Mint State survivors from an approximate mintage from these dies of 600,000 pieces is given. In either case, Uncirculated 1804 C-13 half cents are widely dispersed throughout numismatic circles, and the opportunity to acquire a coin as well preserved and attractive as this Red and Brown example is particularly noteworthy.