1825 Half Cent

[Mr. Magoo]

Back to a few of my favorite sites and this time brought my wife along. She took pictures and I detected. First target 1825 half cent in great condition! Only 63,000 made after a halt in production for 14 years. All are rare, but this one is special to me because I can actually read something off this coin! Last half cent was 1810 from smae general area but couldn't get much detail. Also found a D- brass buckle 1800's time frame to add to my growing buckle collection. All in all not bad for about thirty minutes of hunting!

 

[Michigan Fats]

good copper
MF

 

[EARTHWORKS]

Nice find!

 

[Don in SJ]

Sweet half cent. Nice to see one you can read for a change...

We had a recent discussion as part of a large cent posting in Best Finds. My question was "Why so few half cents found compaired to Large cents?" Everyone agreed that MANY more large cents are found, but nobody had a good answer why. Someone suggested the half cents had so little value that they were used for other things like washers. If they had so little value, I'd think there would be more in the ground instead of less. It's a mystery...

DCMatt

Nice going Mr Magoo, Half Cents are always a pleasure to see coming out of the ground!

Matt, as far as Half Cents being hard to find, well, they were never popular to begin with for some reason, thus not much circulation, also not produced in the numbers(less mintage) or all the years that Large Cents were.

Very rough mintage figures were like 144 million Large Cents minted and only a little over 7 million Half Cents were minted, thus Half Cents were only 5% of the total of the two demoninations, thus Half Cents will not be found in equal numbers by a long shot.........

Percentage wise for me 16% of my US coppers are Half Cents compared to 84% Large Cent and for my son, similar numbers, 18% Half Cents compared to 82% Large Cents.
So overall for us 17% of our large coppers are Half Cents.

BTW, I in general hate statistics but I think these numbers explain why Half Cents are not found as often as Large Cents.

Don

Disclaimer: My mintage figures are very rough ones, rather hard adding up the numbers in Red Book

 

[Mr. Magoo]

I agree with you all...redbook lists as all half cents being rare and they were dispopular back then. Buttons or washers would have been the way they were used alot as well as the large cents. Hard to think that way today with how great a find they are, but back then I guess that was the case. They are there though all the same. The sites I hunt are almost always 1700's in some way shape or form allowing me to hit pockets of time that carried that type of coinage and it has paid off very well for me this year once I focused on that mindset. Two half cents and two large cents from the early 1800's is fantastic to me and yes, I am always amazed when they are found. Even more when little cleaning is necessary. They are beautiful coins (although not a coin shooter-but rather a button hunter- over 60 found since January 2009). I am always amazed at what lies just beneath the dirt that has waited for me to sweep my coil over after 180 plus years- I know you all feel the same-can't wait for the next hunt! Thanks for looking! Happy hunting!

 

[Colonial Copper Zeus]

Nice half cent Mr. Magoo. I think half cents are even more desirable than largies.
Chris

 

[halfdime]

That half cent is a great find, and the 95P Roosevelt isn't bad either! I wish there was a "tongue in cheek" smiley face. I'd love to find a half cent one day!

 

[crazyjarhead]

Nice find MM. WOW, that wouldn't buy anything today

 

[mlhudson]

" COPPA " and " SILVER " WAY TO GO

NICE FINDS

KEEPA DIGGIN

MLHUDSON

 

[whitesPA]

nice half cent . i only dug 1 in 11 years of detecting and its not in to good of shape

 

[BuckleBoy]

Congrats on the half cent. I have never dug one and have only seen around 3 that i can think of ever
come up.

It seems like these didn't circulate much outside of the east coast. We regularly dig Large Cents from the same eras here, but we've never dug any half cents.

I have a hunch that folks either didn't like or didn't need that denomination.

But it's still on the list to find...



-Buckles

 

[Bob S]

Nice Find WTG

 

[STH69]

Nice condition congrats

 

[Finman]

Awesome find, Congrats on that Beauty!!!!!

HH Joe