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HBCC #6042 – 1861 Half Dollar – Obverse HBCC #6042 – 1861 Half Dollar – Reverse
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1861 Half Dollar

HBCC#:
6042
Breen#:
n/a
BD#:
n/a
Judd#:
277
Pollock#:
326

This is an extremely important and rare half dollar pattern, one of just two examples enumerated by Andrew W. Pollock, III. This issue, and related patterns dated 1861, were struck late in the year as a direct response to Treasury Secretary Salmon Chase who requested the motto be added to our coinage after receiving a letter in November 1861 from the Rev. M.R. Watkinson. Chase wrote to Mint Director James Pollock requesting a device be prepared giving recognition to God “in the fewest and tersest terms possible.” The selected motto was GOD OUR TRUST.

Provenance:
From Bowers and Ruddy's sale of the River Oaks Collection, November 1976, Lot 969.
Obverse:
Liberty Seated type used to coin regular-issue circulating half dollars of the date.
Reverse:
Very similar to the circulating type of the date, but with proposed motto GOD OUR TRUST on a ribbon above the eagle.
Commentary: