1833 was a difficult year in US History. Chicago was founded and we
have been plagued by its existence ever since. Aside from that grave
misfortune, the US Mint in Philadelphia moved into its new permanent
home on Juniper and Chestnut Streets. That was good because the
treasury building was burned down for the second time, once by the
British and once by arsonists. In addition, the Mint produced 5,206,000
Capped Bust Half dollars. What is interesting about the 1833 was that
it was the last year to be minted in the old mint building, which dated
about to the 1790's. The next year would be in the new building with
new equipment, and in 1836 steam driven presses had been introduced,
opening a new age of mechanical reproduction of coinage. As a result,
it is generally conceded that in this year, 1833, a large number of the
coins produced were of a lesser quality and dies were overused as
workers were moving and working at the same time.
My example, which is a Overton 102, is described as having a number of characteristics, the
details that you can look up, the most important of which is a deformity
in the top of the 5, of 50 C. on the reverse. I picked this Capped Bust out of the
David Kahn inventory because it has a very early
and complete die state which is squarely struck. But it should be noted
that there are a large number of high quality 1833s around. This is
very prime though and we can see this when we observe a small die break
under the '0' in 50 that comes from the bottom and sweeps left and
bottom-ward. I love it when these coins almost have a high relief look
to them and the roundness of the cheeks and the face become very
apparent. You don't see that on a Washington Quarter.
cont ...
http://www.mrbrklyn.com/capped_bust_1833_ms_63.html