1839 50C Liberty Seated Half Dollar, No Drapery PCGS MS64

In October 1839, the Bank of the United States of Pennsylvania, without proper federal support, suspended specie payments in the aftermath of the cotton bust that swept through the South. The Hard Times returned once again to usher in a period of continuous political and economic trials that would plague the coming decades. Gobrecht's Seated Liberty and perched eagle, the faithful ambassadors throughout, also saw their lives upset over the coming decades with seemingly endless tinkering by the Mint's staff. Starting in the latter months of 1839 and continuing through the design's eclipse in 1891, enlarged lettering, arrows about the date, cumbersome rays, and a seemingly misplaced scroll over the eagle's head would all take their turn and chip away at the beauty of the initial design. The unencumbered appearance of the No Drapery half dollars proved to be just as fleeting as the lull in the Hard Times during which they made their debut.

Besides their deserved rarity, high grade survivors of the 1839 No Drapery issue are eagerly sought by numismatists as examples of a brief, half-year type and unadulterated representations of Christian Gobrecht's original half dollar motif. Like Jackson's war with the Bank, the major weakness of this design was its simplicity. As numismatists in the 1990s know all too well, the open-aired design of this issue made it prone to heavy bagmarks and rapid wear. The vast majority of survivors grade below AU 50 and, provided that one were even lucky enough to locate an unimpaired Mint State specimen, it would most likely grade no higher than MS 63. The present near-gem piece, however, is conspicuous for its almost unbelievable state of preservation. The surfaces carry only a few wispy abrasions, none of which are unduly distracting. The attractive surfaces display a layer of pale russet-gold patination and thick, underlying mint frost. Save for limited flatness on some of the stars and the eagle's left (facing) talon, every feature of this near-gem is boldly delineated.