Values
A Draped Bust half dime is an early silver five-cent coin with two reverses. This page is a series reference, not a price list.
The mintage chart leaves G, VF, and MS-63 blank. The NGC US Coin Price Guide file retrieved 2026-08-21 does not cover this piece. Do not paste an auction hammer into the grade columns.
If you have one and want to sell it, start with how to sell a coin collection. The Flowing Hair half dime is the previous type. The Draped Bust dime is the ten-cent coin of the same portrait.
Key Dates
1796 opens the small-eagle reverse. After a pause, 1800 opens the heraldic eagle. The article says 1804 was not struck.
Those are type markers, not mintage rows. A ceiling on the whole series is not a date.
Errors
No table. The article names the two reverses and a year with no production. It does not print a mintage grid. The grid stays empty.
No denomination. These coins do not say HALF DIME. A missing legend is the design.
Heraldic eagle called a small eagle. The wing position is the reverse type. Calling the later eagle “small” mixes two designs.
Compare the coin to the NGC Coin Explorer. That category mixes several early half dimes. We do not host their plates.
Varieties
Small eagle, then heraldic eagle. That is the type change inside this page. No value is written on the coin, and there is no mint mark.
- Small eagleThe first reverse, opening in 1796. The plate on this page is a 1796 of that reverse.
- Heraldic eagleFrom 1800 the eagle is heraldic, with outstretched wings. Calling the later eagle small mixes two designs.
Names follow PCGS CoinFacts and NGC, the same publishers this site already cites. This is a name list, not a price list and not a count.
Mintage
Small eagle, then heraldic eagle. Philadelphia only. No mint mark.
| Year | Mint | Mintage | G | VF | MS-63 |
|---|
Mintage: the note under this table names the page that printed each count. These figures are not an NGC Coin Explorer extract and they are not the 1974 Mint pamphlet.
Collector-standard year/mint presentation follows A Guide Book of United States Coins (the Red Book). These cells are Mint manufacture figures, not a Red Book net or melt.
Values: NGC US Coin Price Guide, retrieved 2026-08-21. Guide values, not offers. Not melt. NGC IDs link to the same publisher’s price-guide listing.
Key date names: NGC Coin Explorer. Bold rows are only dates that publisher named.
The chart is empty on purpose. The Wikipedia Half dime article does not print a year-by-year mintage table. A sentence that production stayed under a ceiling is not a row. Because the coin is a circulation type, a future table of those year counts would belong here. A remembered count does not.
The grade columns are empty because this site has no NGC guide extract for this coin.
Specifications
These are mint specs, not what a dealer pays. Wear can take a little weight off. We will not invent a tolerance. The weight row is the 1792 standard for a half disme. No catalog page used here prints a thickness.
| Specification | Figure |
|---|---|
| Diameter | Not printed |
| Thickness | Not printed |
| Weight | 20.8 grains standard (Coinage Act of April 2, 1792) |
| Composition | 1,485/1,664 silver, the rest copper (Coinage Act of April 2, 1792) |
| Edge | Not printed on a cited catalog page |
| Designer | Robert Scot |
No catalog page used for the Draped Bust half dime prints a thickness. Diameter and thickness stay Not printed. The weight is the 1792 half-disme standard. Small eagle and heraldic eagle share it.
Grading
A Draped Bust half dime wears first in the drapery and on whichever eagle the reverse uses.
Small eagle and heraldic eagle are two designs. Grade the one in your hand.
Key Diagnostic Areas
| Area | What to examine | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Drapery | The cloth at the shoulder. | The drape separates this coin from Flowing Hair. |
| Eagle | Tucked wings, or outstretched heraldic wings. | The wing position is the reverse type, not a grade. |
| Fields | Adjustment marks and hairlines. | Filing to weight is a Mint practice. Polishing it is damage. |
| Date | 1796 through 1805, with 1804 absent. | 1804 was not struck. A capped bust is a later coin. |
Circulated & Mint State
These cards describe this coin, not a second copy of the P-1 through MS-70 chart. The shared numbers live on the glossary.
See graded photos. The photos that show what VF looks like live at PCGS. We do not host their plates. NGC Coin Explorer is another look if you want a second set.
What each named grade looks like on this design.
Poor
Poor
A disk you can still call a Draped Bust half dime if you already know the type.
- The drapery and the eagle are gone.
- The date may be a shadow. Do not scrape it.
- Shine does not make this a better coin.
AG
About Good
You might read a digit. The high points on this Draped Bust half dime are already slick.
- The drapery and the eagle are worn to a blank patch.
- If you cannot read the date without hoping, stay here.
- A 1800 is still this grade if it is this worn.
Good
Good
The date is readable. The design is still mostly an outline.
- The drapery and the eagle are flat. The type is an outline, not a portrait.
- The rim should be full enough to hold the legend.
- This is a worn coin, not a details story.
VG
Very Good
The date is clear. A little life returns away from the high points.
- Some leftover detail sits away from the drapery and the eagle.
- The high points are still tired.
- Do not clean the date to “see it better.”
Fine
Fine
You can follow the design. The high points are outlined, not sharp.
- The drapery and the eagle are outlined and flat — no real sharpness yet.
- The rest of the coin can look busier than the grade.
- The date should be clear. The mint mark should be too, if there is one.
VF
Very Fine
The type is doing real work. The drapery and the eagle still decide.
- Leftover detail sits on the drapery and the eagle. The centers are still the worn spot.
- Marks do not raise the grade.
- A regular 1800 is still this grade if it is this worn.
EF
Extremely Fine
Most of the coin looks sharp. The high points tell on it.
- Light wear on the drapery and the eagle.
- The rest of the coin can look better than the grade. Trust the high points.
- The date should be sharp.
AU
About Uncirculated
Almost no wear — and “almost” lives on the same high points.
- A trace of rub on the drapery and the eagle.
- Luster may still sit in the fields. Rub on those high points is still rub.
- A bright coin with a slick high point is still slick.
Basal MS
Mint State
No wear. The fight is marks and luster, not how white the coin looks.
- No rub on the drapery and the eagle.
- Marks and luster decide how this mint-state coin lives.
- A bright chewed-up coin is still chewed-up.
Choice
Choice Mint State
Still no wear. Cleaner fields than basal mint state.
- Same no-wear rule on the drapery and the eagle.
- Fewer marks in the fields. Luster is more intact.
- White is not a grade.
Gem
Gem Mint State
A clean Draped Bust half dime for this type. Still mint state, still not a story.
- No wear on the drapery and the eagle.
- Marks and luster, not a romance about a date or a white field.
- A slab is an opinion in plastic. The glossary has the numbers.
This page does not invent a PR price grid. The proof numbers live on the glossary.
Copper color designations do not apply to this silver coin. See the Lincoln Wheat cent and the glossary.
Overview
The Draped Bust half dime runs from 1796 to 1805. Liberty is draped, not flowing-haired and not capped. The first reverse is a small eagle. The later reverse is a heraldic eagle. All of them were struck at Philadelphia, and none carry a denomination.
The photograph is a 1796 Draped Bust half dime with the small eagle, from the National Numismatic Collection. The heraldic eagle is the other reverse. Do not grade every half dime as if it were that plate.
This page is a series article, not a shop listing.
History
Half dime coinage paused after 1795 and came back with a draped bust. The Half dime article says the heraldic reverse was used when production resumed in 1800, that no half dimes were made in 1804, and that the series never passed a stated ceiling. It does not list every year. This page refuses to fill the gaps.
Capped Bust half dimes do not start until 1829. The years between are a gap in coinage, not a missing chart row.
Design
Obverse: draped Liberty, facing right. Reverse: either a small eagle or a heraldic eagle with a shield. No value, no mint mark.
The drapery at the shoulder and the eagle’s wings are the type. Hairlines in the fields are often adjustment or cleaning, not a higher grade.
People Also Ask
Why is the chart empty?
The Half dime article describes small-eagle and heraldic-eagle reverses and says production never passed a ceiling. It does not print a year-by-year table. This page will not turn that sentence into rows.
Was 1804 struck?
The same article says none were produced in 1804. A blank year is not a row of zero, and it is not a coin you should invent.
What changed on the reverse?
The first reverse is a small eagle. From 1800 the eagle is heraldic, with outstretched wings. That is a type change inside this page, not a grade.
How much is a Draped Bust half dime worth?
This page does not print guide prices. The NGC US Coin Price Guide file retrieved 2026-08-21 does not include this coin. An auction result is not a guide cell.
Collector Considerations
Check the eagle before you date the coin. Small eagle and heraldic eagle share this page and they are not the same reverse. A cap on a pole is the later half dime, on its own page.
Do not fill the empty table with a number you remember from a price guide. When a cited year table is in the file, the rows can be those counts.
The Capped Bust half dime is 1829–1837. Read that page if the bust wears a cap.
A Final Word
The Draped Bust half dime page is two eagles and an empty chart. The missing table stays missing.
An auction story is not a mintage.