About the Coin

The Seated Liberty half dime was struck from 1837 through 1873. The overall design followed that of the dime and quarter dollar, although the quarter dollar didn't change to the seated liberty design until 1838.

In 1840, mint employee Robert Hughes changed the design to include, among other things, extra drapery below Liberty's left elbow. Other varieties include the "no stars," "arrowheads," and "with motto" design changes.

This example from The Arlington Collection is a beautiful blast white example. Although all known 1849-O half dimes were struck with a rusted die, the rust is not as extensive as on other examples.

Only about a dozen truly mint state examples are believed to exist. At the time of this writing, PCGS and NGC had each graded only 9 examples as MS-64 with none higher, although some of the MS-64s are undoubtably crackouts (resubmissions) inflating the numbers.

Designer: Christian Gobrecht
Weight: 1.34 grams
Diameter: approx. 15.5mm, reeded edge
Composition: 90% silver, 10% copper