1836 Capped Bust Half Dollar. Reeded Edge. 50 CENTS. GR-1, the only known dies. Rarity-2. MS-62 (PCG

1836 Capped Bust Half Dollar. Reeded Edge. 50 CENTS. GR-1, the only known dies. Rarity-2. MS-62 (PCGS).，This handsome piece is draped in light golden-gray patina that blends nicely with soft satin luster. The strike is characteristic of the issue, all details bold to sharp apart from softness to the eagles right wing, leg and talon, as well as the uppermost arrow feather and the corresponding area on the obverse (i.e, the hair curls over Libertys ear). Uncommonly smooth in hand for the assigned grade, this is a highly desirable Mint State example of the elusive and eagerly sought 1836 Reeded Edge half dollar.<p>The United States Mint had used steam power to coin other denominations before the half dollar, namely cents beginning in April 1836 and quarters soon thereafter, but the production of the workhorse half dollar remained a goal for most of 1836. The large numbers of half dollars required by the American economy forced the Mint to devote the majority of its capacity to the denomination. While the reintroduction of the dollar denomination was expected to alleviate some of the pressure on half dollar outputs, the 50 cents denomination remained an important frontier to be conquered by steam. Cents and quarters, both relatively small and easy to strike, were natural warm-up acts for the half dollar, whose size and heft required far more technological savvy. While the processes involved were not running flawlessly until the spring of 1837, the production of a small group of half dollars on the steam press in November 1836 was a victory nonetheless. The construction of a new press in 1837 capable of steam coinage of dollars was the only challenge that remained.<p>Though a mintage figure of 1,200 pieces for circulation was divined by Walter Breen decades ago, the true figure is undoubtedly several thousand higher. Breen worked from delivery statistics that showed 738,000 half dollars coined in November 1836 and 1,034,200 struck in December, but was otherwise nonspecific. While the first Reeded Edge half dollars were struck in November, Robert W. Julian has described "technical difficulties" that "were serious enough that [Chief Coiner Adam Eckfeldt] would be forced to return to the screw press and lettered-edge half dollars." Given the population of surviving 1836 Reeded Edge half dollars today, Julian has estimated that the mintage was actually closer to 5,000 pieces.<p>Between the legendarily elusive Small Eagle half dollars of 1796 and 1797 and the scarce Philadelphia Mint dates between 1879 and 1890, no other half dollar issue approaches the low mintage of the 1836 Reeded Edge. The number struck was just a fraction of such well regarded dates as 1794 and 1815, without the relatively high survivorship and large Proof mintages of the final decade of the Liberty Seated design. Beyond its evident historical importance, the 1836 Reeded Edge has always been admired as a rarity. For most of the 19th century, this issue was deemed a pattern, too rare to have been issued for circulation. While listed in J. Hewitt Judds <em>United States Pattern, Trial, and Experimental Pieces</em> as Judd-57, a listing that remains in modern editions out of a sense of tradition, the 1836 Reeded Edge half dollar is now acknowledged as a regular issue coin. The vast majority of survivors show significant wear, Mint State survivors elusive at all levels of preservation.，From the A.J. Vanderbilt Collection. Acquired from Stacks, November 1980.，