Walter Breen's Encyclopedia of United States and Colonial Proof Coins 1722-1989

1849

Half Cent. "Small date (apparently from the logotype used for half dimes and gold dollars, but much more heavily punched into the die), Rev. Large berry die of 1840-48. First auction record: E. Cogan, Oct. 18, 1860, for a fantastic $22, to John F. McCoy, thence McCoy:793 to Col. Cohen. First publication in a numismatic journal: AJN, January 1871, p.59, by E(dward) M(aris), by implication in that he claimed to have seen all dates, 1840-49 small date, with both large and small berry reverses. Long controversial and long believed rarest of the proof-only half cents of the 1840's. Aside from two obvious underweight restrikes with high wire edges, there are possibly eight proofs and one damaged coin in collectors' hands, none in museums at present - not even in the Smithsonian. As none of the known specimens of this variety weighs correctly, the original status of all of them has been questioned; but the presence of this variety in the Stickney proof set seems to establish satisfactorily that at least some were actually made in 1849. The damaged piece was in the Henry Clay Miller and Hillyer Ryder collections, reappearing in the 1962 New York Metropolitan Convention sale, lot 241. Proofs: (1) Phila. Estate, 1958, probably ex Cass - "Empire": 117. (2) Mills-Clapp-Eliasberg. (3) "Dupont": 1147, to H. 0.,83 grains. (4) F. C. C. Boyd - NN 51: 1221. (5) Holmes: 1344. (6) The former R. C. W. Brock, University of Pennsylvania, Dochkus coin. (7) Brobston, 86 grains. (8) N.Y. state private collection, probably same as one of the above. One of these, not too carefully handled, slept at $450 in the "Century" sale. Not impossibly a ninth original is around, even aside from that in the Stickney proof set if that set remains intact. (The Showers and Norweb pieces are the two restrikes.) Existence of a circulated specimen tends to confirm the view that these were made in 1849; restrikes were not spent.