United States
½ Cent "Draped Bust - Half Cent" · “Draped Bust - Half Cent”
United States · 1800–1808 · Copper
The coin
The story
The Draped Bust Half Cent: America's least-wanted coin
At the dawn of the 1800s the young United States made a coin worth half of one cent. Almost nobody wanted it. The Mint struck them on cut-up scrap, piled the leftovers in storage, and kept making them anyway. Today the rarest are worth a fortune.
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