1792 50C Washington Getz Pattern Half Dollar, Small Eagle, Silver VF35 PCGS. Baker-24, W-10780, Musante GW-22, R.7....

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1792 Washington Getz Pattern Half Dollar
VF35
Plain Edge, Silver, Musante GW-22
Not Listed in Fuld's Census

1792 50C Washington Getz Pattern Half Dollar, Small Eagle, Silver VF35 PCGS. Baker-24, W-10780, Musante GW-22, R.7. Plain edge, 35 mm., 214.3 grains, struck over a French 1/2 ecu, with the undertype evident at IDENT and ES OF A and wing. Lancaster, Pennsylvania silversmith Peter Getz created a remarkable series of pattern half dollars in 1792, with a military bust of Washington facing left on the obverse, the legend G. WASHINGTON PRESIDENT. I. around, and the date below. The reverse shows a version of the Great Seal of the United States, featuring a heraldic eagle with an olive branch in the right talon and six arrows in the left. There are 15 stars in the field around the eagle's head and the legend UNITED STATES OF AMERICA shows around the border. Q. David Bowers suggests these patterns were produced in response to Robert Morris's proposal of December 21, 1791, suggesting a presidential portrait be used on American coinage. George Washington's well-known opposition to that idea undoubtedly doomed the project.

In his 2009 book, The Washington Pattern Coinage of Peter Getz, George Fuld conducted an extensive study of the 22 Washington Getz pattern half dollars known to collectors at the time. This coin is a "new" discovery, unknown to Fuld in 2009, and not covered in his reference. We say "new" because numismatic researcher Brad Karoleff remembers seeing this piece 30 years ago, but its whereabouts since that time are not known. PCGS reports this coin was struck over a French 1/2 ecu and we note the plain edge shows signs of filing, probably to remove the ornamentation that was on the edge of the original coin. Fuld notes that 13 examples of the previously known 1792 Washington Getz pattern half dollars have a plain edge like this piece, five examples have an ornamented edge, three examples have an intertwined leaves edge, and one example has a lettered edge that was struck over a British half crown with the lettering from the undertype. Nine examples have no apparent undertype, while the other 14 (including this new piece) were struck over other silver coins. Most likely, all 23 known examples were struck over previous coins, but the undertype is just not visible on some examples.

The present coin shows some light-to-moderate wear on the high points of the design elements, with the heaviest wear on the shield and tips of the eagle's wings on the reverse. The devices were strongly impressed, outside of some softness on the letters in OF on the reverse. The pleasing steel-gray surfaces show the expected number of minor ticks and abrasions for a coin of this vintage, but only a pair of parallel scratches in the left obverse field and a thin scratch from above the A in STATES to the rim at 2 o'clock on the reverse merit individual mention. The overall presentation is most attractive for this newly discovered specimen of this classic early American rarity. Population: 2 in 35, 1 finer (7/22).

Coin Index Numbers: (PCGS# 925, Greysheet# 260)

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