The little half dime gets to lay claim to being the oldest coin that was issued by a young United States, before we even had a proper Mint. Known first as “half dismes,” a few of these earliest pieces, dated 1792, are still out there in collections. On the rare occasion that one does come up for auction, the bidding can be furious and the hammer price can be quite high. The half dime remained the smallest circulating silver coin for quite some time but eventually would be superseded by our modern nickels. Let’s look back and see how this happened.
What Sort of High Numbers?
While those first
