VERY RARE 1878-S HALF DOLLAR

WB-101, R-5.

The Bland-Allison Act of 1878 required the US Treasury to purchase between $2 million and $4 million dollars of silver every month from Western mines in an attempt to return the US back to bimetallism, in which both gold and silver supported the currency. As a result, the production of silver dollars at the San Francisco mint reached previously unseen highs with nearly 10 million of the newly-designed Morgan Dollars made in 1878. Conversely, production of 1878-S quarter dollars and half dollars shrank dramatically, with the former going from almost nine million in 1877 to 140, 000 in 1878, and the latter going from over five million in 1877 to just 12,000 in 1878.

The 1878-S half dollar has been recognized as a rarity for well over a century, and current research indicates that around 50 or so are known in total. This includes four to six AU coins, and another five or six in Uncirculated. The finest known is the famous Pogue PCGS MS66 that set a record for this issue when it brought $288,000 as Stack’s Bowers 3/2020: 7294. The Gardner coin, graded MS64 by PCGS and approved by CAC, sold for $199,750 in June 2014. Two others exist in PCGS MS65, including the coin owned by the Stellar Collection.

This coin shows mottled russet gold color on the obverse and similar color on the reverse but with some flashes of electric-blue seen from 4:00 to 6:00. Both sides are semi-Prooflike as is typical for the issue, and the strike is very sharp with the diagnostic mint-made die chip within the left portion of the reverse shield visible with the naked eye. A few small ticks in the right obverse field are hard to see without a 5x glass. The overall appearance is pleasing and I feel that the assigned grade is accurate.

This exact coin (see below) represents the sole PCGS AU53 1878-S half dollar to ever sell at auction. In October 2022, a PCGS VG10 brought $44,400 while a cleaned VG details in an NGC holder was bid up to $39,600. And in October 2023, a recolored MS61 graded by PCGS (and no better than an AU55 in my opinion) brought $102,000.

The 1878-S is a date missing from most collections of Liberty Seated half dollars, and this very attractive and well-pedigreed example will fit nicely into most advanced sets.

Ex Corvallis Collection via DWN, “Horatio Morgan” Collection, Stack’s Bowers 11/2019: 7309, where it brought $50,400. Bowers and Merena 11/1988: 3240 ($22,000), Abe Kosoff 1953 ANA: 988, T. James Clarke Collection.

DWN collects sales tax when appropriate.