1866-S 50C No Motto MS 65+

Description

An absolute monster! 1866 was a transitional year for U.S. coins, with the big change being the addition of the motto "IN GOD WE TRUST" to most gold and silver coins. The authorizing legislation for this change was the Coinage Act of March 3, 1865, which ordered that the motto be placed on all gold and silver coins. Compliance with the Act of March, 1865 meant that new dies had to be prepared at Philadelphia, not only for their internal use, but for the use of the branch mint at San Francisco. Unfortunately, new “With Motto” reverses were not sent to San Francisco until March, 1866. In the interim period between January 1, 1866 and the arrival of the new dies, the San Francisco Mint produced a small number (60,000) of 1866 Half Dollars with the old “No Motto” reverse (still in stock from the previous year). The result is one of the real numismatic rarities in the series. The survival rate for this issue, like most S-Mints of this era, is very low, and today, this date is hard to find in any condition, and is a major rarity in Mint State. In low grades, it catalogs for five or six times the other dates in the series and is a high demand collector coin. When it comes to Uncirculated grades, well…in 36 years, PCGS has only graded eight specimens MS60 or better…that’s only one Uncirculated survivor showing up every four years. The PCGS Population is as follows: MS60; one coin, MS62; one coin, MS63; four coins, MS64 and MS65; no coins, MS65+; one coin, MS67+; one coin, none higher. So, this spectacular Gem is second finest known by two and a half grading points. But there’s more to the story. The coin graded MS67+ by PCGS is from the famous Eric Newman collection (earlier from the Colonel Green collection). It sold in January, 2021 for $156,000. But frankly, we’d much rather has this coin. No offense to Eric Newman, but his coin was quite dark and, in our opinion, has very mediocre eye appeal. We feel this MS65+ is a much better coin, and we consider it the finest known of this major 19th Century silver rarity. This coin is from the famous Eugene Gardner collection. Gardner had a great eye and he bought the right coin for his collection. He bought the best one. We’ll be glad to send you a scan of both coins and you can decide for yourself. We think it’s no contest. This is one of the best 19th century silver coins we’ve ever owned