Are There Bargains Among Proof Seated Half Dimes?
Back when we began the Bargain Collector columns, we took a look at the Seated Liberty half dime series. This smallest iteration of the Seated Liberty design had a long run, and it was not particularly difficult to find some bargains mixed into the long date and mintmark runs. But we never even peeked at the proofs – and yes, there were proof versions of these tiny silver pieces made for many of the years for which the series ran. Let’s fill in that gap, as it were, and see if there just might be something we can consider a bargain snoozing in the midst of this series.
At the beginning of many of our bargain quests we look to two different aspects of our search: price point and total mintage. Perhaps obviously, we are always looking for the best price, and at the same time the lowest mintage figures. We’ll need those here as well, but we also have a third focus we should mention right up front. For any of us who wish to jump into this series, do this: buy only certified proof Seated Liberty half dimes. Even for those of us who consider ourselves purists, and routinely insist on raw coins, when it comes to a proof from any classic United States silver series, we really need to buy only coins that have been certified and slabbed by one of the reputable, third-party grading services. The stakes are too high to try and make these purchases without any type of safety net.
With that in mind, let’s look at the proofs among these little half dimes. The series ran from 1837 all the way up to 1873, and saw issues from the main mint in Philadelphia, as well as the branches in New Orleans and San Francisco. When it comes to proofs, the only half dimes that can make the claim come from Philly. This is worth mentioning since there are some of these little gems out there listed as being “proof-like,” from one of the branch mints. Despite such labels, though, those are not proper proofs.
As we might expect, the number of proof Seated Liberty half dimes produced each year was never anything near what we consider normal today. We are accustomed to multi-million mintages of proof sets in special cases that always look absolutely spectacular. We are used to proof coins that will grade something like PF-69 or even PF-70 if they were to be broken out of their sets and submitted for third-party grading. When it comes to the Seated Liberty half dimes, the highest proof mintages appear to be a tie between the 1860, the 1861, and the 1870 – each with a whopping 1,000 coins. That’s it. No more, no way, no how. The low end of this already remarkably low measuring stick is the 1858, with only 300 proofs to the official tally. By any stretch, all of these qualify as rare coins.
With these numbers in hand, it is fair to think that the short answer to the question, “are there any bargains among the proof Seated Liberty half dimes?” is: no. But here we might be surprised as well. There are several from which we might choose, all at a price of $500 to perhaps $600, all in the possibly odd grade of PF-63.
For those of us who have upper limits of something like $100 per coin when it comes to adding to their collections, well, yes, this is going to be above our comfort level. But let’s be fair and admit it is unrealistic to find a classic silver proof that is this old for that low a price. And the PF-63 grade may also seem a bit strange at first glance. But proofs this old, while made to a high standard, were simply not coined with today’s level of technology. Thus, PF-63 is not unreasonable – and indeed, such a coin is not unattractive.
Knowing then that there are several Stead Liberty half dimes that are at least in theory available as proofs, a person can’t help but wonder why these are so much more affordable than we might expect. After all, when comparing any of these half dimes to something like a 1909-S VDB Lincoln cent in a high grade, or the 1877 Indian Head cent in some upper circulated grades, these proofs undoubtedly qualify as bargains. It may simply be that these proofs are less expensive than expected because a person does not need one to complete the series. In other United States coin series, when a date exists only as a proof, collectors need that piece to make a complete set or a full date run. That raises the price. But since a proof Seated Liberty half dime is a luxury, something not needed for the full set, even though they are very rare coins, they are not all that expensive.
Of course, a second a possibly quite obvious reason that only $500 or $600 might land us a proof Seated Liberty half dime is that there are not many people collecting them. Proof Morgan dollars are always expensive, in part because the Morgan dollar seems to be a perennial collector favorite, one that the collector community simply craves. But when there are not many collectors to start with – as may be the case here – the price of high quality coins may simply never get to be all that high.
So, when all is said and done, are there bargains within the proof versions of the Seated Liberty half dimes? Definitely! They may not qualify as rock-bottom cheap, but these proof half dimes are amazing bargains; even a single one would be a tremendous addition to any collection.