1792 Half Disme

Designer: Robert Birch and Joseph Wright Mintage: 1500 [est.] Denomintion: Half Disme Diameter: 17.5 millimeters Metal content: .8924 silver, .1076 copper Weight: 1.35 grams This issue has many of the same attributes as the Continental Dollar: great story, interesting design and fascinating history. If you can find a good looking AU55 to AU58 half disme (and this will be hard as most real AU coins are now in MS61 and MS62 holders) you are probably going to have to pay around $225,000 for this coin. Even an example which looks like its been run over by a train is going to cost in the mid-five figures. The finest Uncirculated examples graded by PCGS are 2 MS-66's. The finest (and only) Specimen example graded by PCGS is a single SP-66. History Some numismatists consider the 1792 Half Disme the first coin minted by the United States. It was decided that the coin be called a Half Disme (pronounced as "deem") after the decimal system, and made smaller than a modern dime but slightly larger than a 1794 Flowing Hair Half Dime. Nonetheless, most numismatists consider it nothing more than a pattern coin, or 'test piece', if you will, for the new U.S. Government, and not actual coinage. However, further evidence suggests the 1792 Half Disme is much more than pattern coins, and actual U.S. coinage. The Mint Act of April 2, 1792, established a Mint at Philadelphia--the nation's capital at the time--mandated a decimal coinage system. The Act was largely the vision of Alexander Hamilton, first Secretary of the Treasury, based on his "Report on the Establishment of a Mint" presented to the House of Representatives on Jan. 28, 1791. Hamilton recommended a decimal standard with ten dollar ("eagle") and one dollar gold coins, one dollar and ten cent ("disme") silver coins, and copper one cent and half-cent pieces. However, the final Act as adopted also comprised silver half dollars, quarter dollars, and half dismes. This coin doesn't have a mint mark and was minted in Philadelphia, as most early US Coins were.