It's been quite a while since I last posted a blog post. Unfortunately, I ran out of new, unique ideas of things to write. Anyways, I finally have a new blog! Last weekend, I went to the World's Fair of Money in Rosemont, Illinois at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center. I went on the final day of the show, on Saturday. Unfortunately, last week was the first week of school, so I wasn't able to go to the show during the week. I really wanted to go every day of the show so I could be sure to see everything, talk to dealers, and go to the cool events. Saturday was still fun, even though many of the dealers decided to start their trek home and left either before the show on Saturday or sometime mid-day. It was nice getting in at 9:30, though. Since it was the free day for everyone, I assumed there would be a lot more people there, but even by noon, there still wasn't a super large crowd, which was quite nice. 

The Classic Head Half Cent, designed by John Reich, is one of the many different types of "obsolete US coins," coins whose denominations are no longer minted. Half Cent, Two Cent, Three Cent, Half Dime, and Twenty-Cent Pieces all fall within this category. The Classic Head Half Cent was the successor to the Draped Bust Half Cent and had the same specifications, 100% copper, a 23.5-millimeter diameter, and a weight of 5.44 grams. The Classic Head Half Cent had a mintage run from 1809 to 1836, but there were large gaps in the mintage. No half cent coins were minted from 1812 to 1824, 1827, or 1830. There are two proof only dates in the series, 1831 and 1836. 1835 was the last year of circulation strikes for the Classic Head Half Cent and it was replaced by the Braided Hair Half Cent in 1840. All half cent coins were significantly smaller than the large cent variants, but are still much larger than the small cents of today. In 1831, the US Mint changed the die for the Half Cent and also purchased new equipment which made the rims of 1831 to 1836 coins slightly higher than pre-1831 examples.