The GFRC Open Set Registry Community Project

Liberty Seated Half Dollars - 1861 New Orleans Die Varieties

1861 New Orleans Half Dollar die varieties are very popular due to the research published by Randy Wiley in Gobrecht Journal issues #94 and #97. Opening the #94 GJ issue with his ground breaking research article, Randy Wiley states:

Half dollars from the New Orleans Branch Mint date 1861 have a special place in the hearts and minds of many collectors as they have become a tangible reminder of the great civil war that ripped our country apart during the 19th century. These 1861-O coins are in demand not only from half dollar collectors trying to complete a date aand mintmark set, but by collectors in general who want to own a small piece of history.

Emisson Sequence

In March, 1992, coin dealer Julian Leidman loaned me a box containing 189 circulated 1861-O half dollars that he had recently purchased. I compared these coins to 20 pieces that I already owned together with 11 other coins belonging to Bill Bugert. We had used these 31 coins as a die marriage set for the 1861-O half dollars (See The Complete Guide to Liberty Half Dollars published by DLRC Press, 1993). At that time, our die marriage reference set contained 11 die marriages from obverse dies and 9 reverse dies. I spent every spare moment I could find during the next week examining these 220 half dollars. No new dies were identified, but three new die marriages were discovered involving previously known dies. The final count was 14 die marriages from 6 obverse and 6 reverse dies. All 14 die marriages were linked through die state combinations in a continuous chain so that an emission sequence emerged for all 1861 half dollars struck at the New Orleans Branch mint...



Click Collection Name to view its composition. The Blank Collection is an empty version.

Collection Rating Complete Weighted Grade caccoin.com Last Updated
The MIKELS Collection 61.6 93% 61.6 43% December 9, 2023
The War Between the States Collection 46.6 93% 46.6 14% April 20, 2024
The Greene Collection 35.1 60% 58.0 11% August 30, 2023
The Civil War Collection 32.3 73% 46.2 27% July 1, 2023
The Blank Collection
Collection Rating Complete Weighted Grade caccoin.com Last Updated
The MIKELS Collection 61.6 93% 61.6 43% December 9, 2023
The 1861-O Varieties Collection 54.7 93% 54.7 36% December 11, 2019
The War Between the States Collection 46.6 93% 46.6 14% April 20, 2024
The Newtown Collection 43.7 80% 52.2 33% June 19, 2019
The Double Barrel Cannon Collection 41.5 73% 55.7 27% September 13, 2017
The Greene Collection 35.1 60% 58.0 11% August 30, 2023
The Civil War Collection 32.3 73% 46.2 27% July 1, 2023
The Texan Collection 28.8 67% 44.2 70% April 4, 2020
The West Coast Collection 21.7 60% 32.2 0% March 31, 2022
The John Okerson Collection 8.3 53% 18.7 13% January 10, 2017
The Whiskey Creek Collection 5.9 7% 63.0 0% December 30, 2017
The Blank Collection

Rating: The weighted average of all coin grades (i.e. aggregated sum of each coin grade + CAC premium multiplied by its rarity factor divided by the sum of all rarity factors). Missing coins are included and assigned a grade of 0. This metric is the basis for order rank.

Complete: The number of coin entries divided by the total number of coins in the Set.

Weighted Grade: The weighted average of all coin grades (see calculation above), but excluding any missing coins.

%: The ratio of coins certified by CAC (either green or gold sticker). Calculated as the number of CAC coins divided by the total number of entered coins.

Rarity Factor: The rarity assessment for each date or variety is based on availability in grades of EF-AU and uses a scale of R-1 through R-8 with a R-1 weight being the most common while a R-8 weight being the most difficult to locate. Rarity estimates are from Bill Bugert.