ATTRIBUTING 1861-O HALF DOLLAR VARIETIES

My thanks to Howard for posting the source of the “ran out of bullion” comment in his excellent article on visiting the New Orleans Mint (V17, #35). I’ll stand by my earlier comments in last week’s E-Sylum (in re “ran out of bullion”) and merely note that the museum’s card is an example of inadvertently perpetuating a popular misconception – after all, it seems to makes sense, doesn’t it?

Interestingly, the text on the card image Howard posted calls for additional comments. First is toward the bottom – “….most of the coins minted at this time were not struck with a proof-like finish…” (referring to the coin on exhibit). Absolutely true! Just for clarification, however, branch mint proofs are known from several facilities, including New Orleans. They are extremely rare and were struck in minute quantities when some event worth commemorating occurred. The five or six known 1861-O half dollar proofs were authenticated by Walter Breen as having been struck to commemorate the Confederacy accepting control of the New Orleans Mint from Louisiana and were thus struck under Confederate authority.

The second is at the top – “This coin might have been minted by any one of three Governments that controlled the New Orleans Mint facility in the first half of 1861” (see previous sentence). While this also refers specifically to the coin on exhibit, it suggests what we have all been told for years - that the United States, Louisiana and the Confederacy all struck 1861 half dollars at New Orleans and all were struck using US dies so we can’t tell which authority struck any given coin, right?

Well, thanks to the landmark work of Randall Wiley and Bill Bugert this is no longer the case. They performed lengthy studies of 1861-O half dollar die marriages (a coin struck using one obverse die and one reverse die, in effect “marrying” those two dies in the resulting coin). Ultimately 14 die marriages were identified - the CSA Half Dollar was not included since the US die it employed was already accounted for. These findings, along with examples, were detailed in Randall Wiley’s Die Marriages of 1861-O Half Dollars in the Gobrecht Journal (Vol 32, No 94; Nov, 2005); and in Bill Bugert’s Liberty Seated Half Dollar Die Varieties, Volume IV (see E-Sylum Volume 16, Number 49, Dec 1, 2013).

The point is that we are now able to distinguish between the three minting authorities and properly attribute 1861-O Half Dollars! I imagine the "can’t tell which authority struck any given coin" tradition will probably remain with us for a while though.

To read the earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
MORE ON CONFEDERATE MINTING IN NEW ORLEANS (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v17n38a14.html)
NEW BOOK: LIBERTY SEATED HALF DOLLAR DIE VARIETIES, VOLUME IV (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v16n49a03.html)

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