1806 Draped Bust Half Dollar. O-109, T-15. Rarity-1. Pointed 6, Stem Not Through Claw. MS-64 (PCGS).

1806 Draped Bust Half Dollar. O-109, T-15. Rarity-1. Pointed 6, Stem Not Through Claw. MS-64 (PCGS). Gold Shield Holder.，A lovely and significant example that ranks high in the Condition Census for the 1806 O-109 dies. Both sides are sharply to fully defined throughout from an ideally centered, uncommonly well executed strike. Satiny and smooth, the surfaces are dressed in beautiful iridescent toning of silver-mauve, pale pink and powder blue. Attractive in all regards, this coin comes highly recommended for inclusion in an advanced type set or specialized early half dollar variety collection.<p>Only two varieties of 1806 half dollars use a reverse with no stem through the eagles claw, this one and the extremely rare O-108. Though a fair number are known in nice grade, including more than a dozen in Mint State, most examples of the O-109 die marriage are at lower levels through MS-63. This remarkable near-Gem qualifies as Condition Census for the 1806 O-109 dies, and it is a significant rarity for both the individual variety as well as the type as a whole.<p>This variety appears to have been first published in the so-called "Haseltine Type Table," an 1881 auction by John Haseltine that was published as a monograph, thereafter serving as the first listing of die varieties of early quarter dollars, half dollars, and silver dollars. The collection was built by J. Colvin Randall, a Philadelphia numismatist, and it was Randall who wrote the Type Table, despite Haseltines claims of authorship. Randall owned a specimen he called Uncirculated (perhaps this specimen?). His idea that the variety was extremely rare has been modified by later discoveries, as collecting half dollars by variety has become a popular pastime in the 20th and 21st centuries.，From Heritages CSNS Signature Sale of April 2002, lot 6557.，