Draped Bust/Small Eagle Half Dimes 1796-97 Coin Guide
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Draped Bust/Small Eagle Half Dimes 1796-97,
Photo courtesy
Barry
One of the first acts of a sovereign nation has always been to
establish a system of currency for use in commercial transactions. In the
fledgling United States this was doubly important. Although the accepted
standard of value was the Spanish silver dollar and its fractional pieces
of eight, English coins of pounds, shillings and pence also were in use
throughout the young nation. Efficient trade was hampered at every turn,
particularly between the states, as each valued the Spanish coins
differently in relation to English issues. By the end of the 1780s, much
discussion ensued concerning the necessity and structure of a reliable,
non-fluctuating system of coinage.
Thomas Jefferson, along with Alexander Hamilton and financier Robert
Morris, had long advocated the use of the decimal system. Introduced by
the Dutch inventor Simon Stevin van Brugghe, it used whole numbers to
describe fractions and was translated into English in 1608 as Disme: the
art of tenths, or, Decimall arithmeticke. Jefferson saw decimal coins as
the solution to the conflicting foreign systems already circulating in
North America. The gold ten-dollar piece would be roughly equal in value
to the British double guinea. The silver dollar and its fractions would
correspond to the Spanish eight reales. Copper cents would be equivalent
to English halfpennies.
The Mint Act passed by Congress on April 2, 1792, provided that ".
. . the money of account of the United States shall be expressed in
dollars or units, dismes or tenths, cents or hundredths, . . . a disme
being the tenth part of a dollar . . ." It was fitting that this
country, born of revolution, should use a revolutionary system for
coinage.
The first decimal coins struck were the William Russell Birch designed
pattern half dismes of 1792. Only fifteen hundred were minted. Most
likely, as the late Walter Breen postulated, minting half dismes was the
most economical use possible of the $75 worth of silver bullion that was
on hand at the time. But this small mintage was only an experiment.
It wasn't until 1795 that regular minting of the half dime began,
though the first examples were coined from dies dated 1794. Robert Scot's
Flowing Hair design was widely criticized for its scrawny eagle and its
portrayal of Miss Liberty in a "fright wig." (Although Scot's
design-unlike the 1792 coins-did not display the denomination, the
spelling of "disme" would evolve over time to the anglicized
"dime.")
After the poor reception afforded Scot's creation, Mint Director Henry
DeSaussure addressed the immediate need of improving the coinage. Going
outside the Mint, he engaged artist Gilbert Stuart to submit a sketch for
a new Liberty head. Stuart modeled his Liberty after the buxom Mrs.
William Bingham of Newport, Rhode Island. Using Stuart's sketch,
transferred to a relief model by John Eckstein, Scot engraved the dies for
the new half dime.
Released in 1796, the coin's obverse design consists of a Draped Bust
profile of Liberty facing right, with flowing hair secured by a ribbon.
The word LIBERTY is above her head, and the date is below the bust. Stars
flank each side. The coin's reverse depicts an open wreath surrounding a
small eagle that is perched on a cloud. The eagle is smaller than the one
on the Flowing Hair design of 1794-95, but it has a fuller breast. The
inscription UNITED STATES OF AMERICA surrounds the wreath.
The 1796 half dime has eight stars on the left and seven on the right,
representing the fifteen states, including the new states of Vermont (#14)
and Kentucky (#15). In 1797, a fifteen-star variety was struck, and later
a sixteenth star (eight right, eight left) was added after Tennessee was
admitted to the Union on June 1, 1796. Director DeSaussure's successor,
Elias Boudinot, realized that they couldn't go on adding stars ad
infinitum, so the last variety of 1797 had only thirteen stars (seven
right, six left). Henceforth, thirteen stars would be used to symbolize
the original union of states.
There were 54,757 half dimes of this design minted. Only a few
varieties exist, and all are rare. Even type collectors find this issue a
challenge. In 1796, there is a late die-state example with a broken
"B" in Liberty that appears as "LIKERTY" and an
overdate, 1796/5. The 1797 coins were minted from only three obverse dies
having either fifteen, sixteen or thirteen stars. No proofs were made, but
supposedly there is a single 1797 fifteen-star prooflike presentation
piece that can be traced back to Mint Director Boudinot. It was sent to
Matthew Boulton in England as an example of the Mint's capabilities. It
was last reported in the collection of Harold Bareford but did not appear
when his coins were auctioned in 1981.
One reason for the paucity and low quality of coinage during this
period was the yearly outbreak of yellow fever in Philadelphia during the
summer and fall months. The epidemic was particularly ferocious from 1797
through 1804, and during some of these years the Mint was temporarily
closed throughout the yellow fever season. Key employees-engraver Joseph
Wright and assayer Joseph Whitehead-succumbed in 1793, and Mint Treasurer
Dr. Nicholas Way was felled in 1797. Official procedures were instituted
for closing the Mint in these emergencies, including provisions to pay off
the workers and instructions for coining or securing the bullion that
remained on hand. All dies were to be packaged and sent to the Bank of the
United States for safe keeping.
It should be noted that most Draped Bust/Small Eagle half dimes are
usually very weakly struck, particularly in the center of the coin. This
presents a grading challenge, as the typical specimen may grade only Fine.
Wear first shows on the hair above Liberty's forehead, at the hair over
her ear and shoulder and on the area where the bust meets the drapery
line. On the reverse, check the center of the eagle's breast and the
ribbon.
Draped Bust half dimes typically show adjustment marks made with a file
to bring slightly overweight coins to the proper standard. This process of
adjustment was done before the coin blanks, or planchets, were struck by
dies into coins. Each blank was weighed, and overweight pieces were filed
with strokes across the face of the blank, while underweight pieces were
melted. Though adjustment marks are not a major factor in grading, they
must be recognized so that they are not interpreted as damage to the coin.
No half dimes were struck in 1798 and 1799. The coin was again minted
in 1800 with the same Draped Bust obverse, but with a new reverse by
Robert Scot that copied the heraldic eagle device from the Great Seal of
the United States.
SPECIFICATIONS:
Diameter: 16.5 millimeters Weight: 1.35 grams Composition: .8924
silver, .1076 copper Edge: Reeded Net Weight: .0387 ounce pure silver
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Bowers, Q. David, United States Coins by
Design Types, Bowers & Merena Galleries, Wolfeboro, NH, 1986. Breen,
Walter, Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins,
F.C.I. Press/Doubleday, New York, 1988. Taxay, Don, The U.S. Mint and
Coinage, Arco Publishing Co., New York, 1966. Valentine, Daniel W., The
United States Half Dimes, Quarterman Publications, Inc., Lawrence, MA,
1975. Yeoman, R.S., A Guide Book of United States Coins, 48th Edition.
Western Publishing Co., Racine, WI, 1994
Coin Information Provided Courtesy NGC.
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