1812 50C Capped Bust Half Dollar PCGS AU58 (CAC)

When you read about Capped Bust half dollars in hobby publications, you will learn about total mintages, and value/price for different dates and varieties in different states of preservation. But you will not learn about what happened to the vast majority of Capped Bust half dollars: they were traded for Spanish dollars in the West Indies and then shipped to China to trade for tea and other goods. If you would like to learn more about that, please see further below in this listing.

PCGS has graded 119 as AU58 with 192 finer. In CAC there are 33 in AU58 with 46 finer.

The ‘Empress of China’ began sailing to China in 1784. Similar ships carried Capped Bust half dollars from the West Indies to the Orient to trade them for tea and other goods.

In the early days of our nation, the U.S. silver dollar contained 371.25 grains of pure silver, while the full-bodied Spanish dollars struck in the Spanish American empire had about 377.25 grains. However, despite that difference in silver content, in the West Indies U.S. silver dollars (Flowing Hair and Draped Bust) traded at par for the heavier Spanish dollars. This trade of dollar coins resulted in U.S. silver dollars vanishing from our shores. Mintage of silver dollars at the Philadelphia Mint was halted after the 1803 issue, and they were not struck again until 1840.

Writes economic historian James Laurence Laughlin, “[A]lthough the coinage of the United States silver dollar was discontinued … a profit was still realized by importing Spanish dollars, because two half-dollars served the same purpose as a dollar piece did before, containing, as they did, as much pure silver as the dollar piece. And our silver continued to be coined and exported …” According to an 1832 congressional report prepared by Representative Campbell P. White, the exportation of half dollars carried on steadily after 1804 and was extensive from 1811-1821.

Here's some compelling circumstantial evidence of 1812 Capped Bust half dollars being sent to China. The total number of graded examples of 1812 Capped Bust half dollars (including all varieties) by PCGS and NGC (not including damaged coins with ‘Details’ grades) is 3,485 pieces. However, the original mintage was 1,628,059.

Therefore the number of graded examples is a mere 0.214 percent of the original mintage.