Draped Bust

[3] In 1796, Congress responded to the almost universal dissatisfaction of the first coins (Flowing Hair dollar) and decreed a new design.

By Congressional decree, certain features were required: the eagle, the word Liberty, stars, and United States of America.

Robert Scot, Chief Engraver of the U.S. Mint, 1793–1823, transformed a portrait of a society lady by Gilbert Stuart into a rather buxom Ms. Liberty.

She remained essentially unchanged for several years with the exception of an extra curl added to her flowing locks in 1798.

This design is known as Draped Bust, Small Eagle and usually commands a high price due to the extremely low mintage at the time.

Initially, the decision was made to add a star to the obverse of a coin for each new state that joined the union.

Director of the Mint Elias Boudinot realized that the situation could not continue indefinitely and decreed that all coins would contain the original 13 stars.

Due to primitive working conditions, materials and poorly constructed dies numerous errors and variations appeared.

These include letters and numbers shaped differently, cracks appearing on the surface of the coins, misstrikes and overstrikes (Liberty half dime, 1796), the size of stars or numbers varied from one die to the next (1807 half dollar) and dates overpunched previous dates (1800 large cent, printed over 1798 and 1799).

The pair constitute the sole mintage of the half dollar "small eagle" design.