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Half Dime · $0.05
1838-P Seated Liberty Half Dime (1837-1873)
FS-901
Key Features
Rusted reverse die, No Drapery
Intriguing History
By 1838, 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.