Draped Bust Half Dime

In 1793 the US Mint hired banknote plate engraver Robert Scot as the Chief Engraver. Later this decision was regretted as he was egocentric and jealous and hard to get along with. He had no experience designing device punches for coins so he had to learn as he went along in his job. His first try, the Flowing Hair design of 1794 had broken punches and the public was very critical of the design. People said that Liberty was wearing a “fright” wig and that the bird on the reverse looked like a turkey rather than an eagle.

Scot’s design for the Draped Bust Half Dime in 1800 was the design that was used previously on the gold quarter eagles in 1796, the gold half eagle in 1797 and the dollars and dimes in 1798. LIBERTY appears above her head and there are seven stars on the right and six on the left. On the reverse is a large eagle with wings spread out and an olive branch. In his beak is a ribbon that has the Latin Motto E PLURIBUS UNUM (One made up of many). There are thirteen stars above the eagle and an arc of clouds above the stars. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA is around the periphery.

There were a total of 124,270 Draped Bust Half Dimes minted from 1800 to 1805. The most rare date of the series is 1802 as only 3,060 were minted.

The production of the Draped Bust Half Dime ended in 1805 as the markets and the banks much preferred the large quantities of Mexican silver half reales which were valued at six cents. The half reales were used extensively in the United States.