The SilverTowne Vault Blog

100 Greatest U.S. Coins Series: 1802 Draped Bust Half Dime

Published 06/24/2025

Low mintage, victim of time, and low survival rate has made this next entry a key date in its series and a rarity in United States coinage. Our blog series continues to follow along with Whitman Publishing’s 100 Greatest United States Coins as author Jeff Garrett helps us to understand more about each ranking. Sitting towards the bottom, let us learn more about this important coin in the half dime series.

#77 – 1802 Draped Bust Half Dime

In 1802, there were only 3,060 half dimes struck. Starting with an extremely low mintage, the coin experienced what most did during the early days: wear and tear. Silver melts destroyed many of them, and those that did survive and were found were in poor condition. Over sixty years after they were first issued, only three had been found. However, the more their rarity was highlighted over the years, the more that were found. Another 20 years later, 16 examples of the 1802 half dime were known to exist. Since then, the total population known to exist is between 40 and 50. According to Garrett, no Mint State 1802 half dimes have been found as most of them are in poor...read more