1849

The 1849 Seated Liberty Half Dollar arrived in a year of quiet transition for the Philadelphia Mint, struck as the first California bullion was beginning to reshape the metallic balance of American coinage. A delivery of 1,252,000 pieces places the issue squarely in the working tier of the early Seated halves, comparable to the previous year's Philadelphia output and well above the leaner figures of 1841 and 1845. Christian Gobrecht's design had been in production for a decade, and the No Motto reverse (the configuration used before "In God We Trust" was added to the denomination in 1866) continued without alteration. Specifications also remained as inherited from 1848: 13.36 grams of 90 percent silver, 30.6 millimeters across, with a reeded edge.

Strike quality on the 1849 runs typical for Philadelphia output of the period, with the predictable softness points being Liberty's hair behind the ear, the upper shield rivets, and the eagle's neck feathers where the dies met thinner relief on the planchet. Adjustment marks (file lines applied at the mint to bring overweight planchets to specification before striking) appear on a meaningful share of survivors and should be read as a manufacturing fingerprint, not a defect. Grade distribution concentrates in the circulated band from Very Good through Extremely Fine; About Uncirculated examples are obtainable with patience, but true Mint State pieces thin sharply, and anything grading MS-64 or finer trades as a condition rarity. The most important variety for the year is the WB-6 / FS-301 Repunched Date, a dramatically doubled date showing clear remnants of all four digits to the left of the final punching, the result of a die sinker correcting an off-center first impression. Catalogued as Rarity-5, it is visible to the unaided eye even on circulated coins and commands a substantial premium over the standard date. Routine 1849 halves carry the date in clean, single-punched form; weight and a careful reading of the date area are the principal authentication diagnostics, since altered or added repunching attempting to mimic FS-301 has been recorded on lesser coins.

For collectors, the 1849 is a comfortable date-and-mint slot in a Seated half set in problem-free Fine through Extremely Fine grades, with About Uncirculated coins requiring some patience and Mint State examples reserved for buyers willing to commit. The Regular classification reflects how the standard date trades, while the WB-6 repunched variety occupies a separate, distinctly tougher market. To place this issue within the broader twin-mint production story, see the Seated Liberty Half Dollar series history.