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Half Dime · $0.05
1839-O Seated Liberty Half Dime (1837-1873)
FS-501
Key Features
Large O mintmark
Intriguing History
By 1839, the country was mired in the Panic of 1837, one of the worst depressions the young nation had faced, with banks failing and hard money scarce; President Van Buren's unpopular response gave way in 1841 to William Henry Harrison's month-long presidency and then John Tyler's contested succession. This Seated Liberty half dime, the smallest U.S. silver coin ever regularly struck, was doing its small-change work in exactly this period. This one came from the New Orleans Mint, the Mint's southern branch on the Mississippi River.