Rare Confederate Restrike
From Original Reverse Die

CNG 109, Lot: 863. Estimate $5000. Sold for $4500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CONFEDERATE STATES of AMERICA. AR Half Dollar. Dated 1861. Restruck with original reverse die by J.W. Scott, 1879. Liberty seated right, head left, holding cap on pole and shield with banner inscribed LIBERTY; thirteen stars around; 1861 in exergue / CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, shield with cap on pole in background, within wreath of cotton and wheat; HALF DOL below. Breen 8002. In NGC encapsulation, graded UNC Details, cleaned. Rare, only 500 restruck from the original Confederate reverse die on a ground down 1861 Federal half dollar.

From the WRG Collection. Ex Stack’s (9 September 1987), lot 1295.

The Confederate government officially took control of the New Orleans mint on 28 February 1861, when incumbent officers swore new oaths to the Confederacy. For a time, they continued to strike silver Half Dollars and gold Double Eagles with the the standard Federal types, and it wasn’t until early April that Treasury Secretary C.G. Memminger looked to create new, Confederate dies. Local die sinker and engraver A.H.M. Patterson was given the task of engraving the new design, but only went so far as to produce a single reverse die. This was paired with the current Federal die for 1861, sent from Philadelphia before the secession, and a scant four proof specimens were struck. 

No further specimens were made at the time, and any remaining gold and silver bullion was transferred from the mint on 30 April 1861, when the establishment was shuttered. The unique reverse die remained in the possession of the New Orleans mint’s chief coiner, Dr. Taylor, who held them in secret until 1879, when he published his account of the coinage and sold the die to coin dealer Ebenezer Locke Mason Jr. Mason in turn sold it to J.W. Scott, who acquired a group of 500 1861 O half dollars, ground off the reverse, and restruck them with the Confederate die.