1899 Silver Half (NewFoundland)

[Henry2]

Got this little baby today, I don't know much about foreign currency but I do know its silver

 

[Mackaydon]

Nice one !
KM #6 11.78g; composition 0.9250 silver (.3504 oz) ASW
Mintage: 150k
Don.....

 

[Henry2]

Nice one !
KM #6 11.78g; composition 0.9250 silver (.3504 oz) ASW
Mintage: 150k
Don.....

Ah nice so its 925 not just 90%, 150K minted that seems pretty low is it not?

 

[High Plains Digger]

Hmm....that is only about 15% of the mintage of a 16-D Merc dime, isn't it?? Seems pretty rare.

 

[Mackaydon]

Coins of that type were issued between 1870 and 1900.
The greatest annual mintage was in 1889 and 1890 (150k).
All other years had a mintage of between 20K and 100k.

 

[Tykit]

Congrats on the silver. You will get much better pictures outdoors in the daylight instead of using the flash.

 

[Chocadog]

That half is a very nice find, well done!

 

[CRUSADER]

Hmm....that is only about 15% of the mintage of a 16-D Merc dime, isn't it?? Seems pretty rare.

I think we have proved many times over, that rarity has little bearing on its demand

Not saying it isn't a great find, because it is Large coinage from this period in our history is hard enough to find over here (I'm more talking about British, than New F.). So any large silver is a result

 

[froggy38383]

Nice find.

 

[treasurepirate1]

Very nice find and strange how it got to the states I really like how old Newfoundland currency had those fancy designs running around the edge of the one side, i think it looked better than the traditional leafs that the Canadian coins had at the time. Newfoundland had there own currency because they were a separate colony from Canada but only recently in history they had become apart of Canada.

 

[Iron Patch]

You won't have too many collectors fighting over that one but it certainly is a good detecting find.

 

[floodlight]

and here is what your Newfie 50 cent coin is worth:

https://www.jandm.com/script/getitem.asp?CID=4&PID=132

 

[gleaner1]

Did you find this metal detecting? Or coin roll hunting?

 

[novafinder]

nice, find hard to find here in nova scotia. so it must be a rare one to dig down there congrats

 

[Cal_Cobra]

First off, great find, it's always a blast to unearth a large silver

As far as rarity, just because an item is rare, does not in itself make it valuable. It's difficult to compare to a rare, or low mintage U.S. coin. What was the population of Newfoundland in 1899 compared to the population of the U.S. in 1899?

At any rate, not to derail your terrific find, but proper perspective is required when defining rarity and desirability.

Happy hunting,
Brian