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Obverse of a 1797 Draped Bust, Small Eagle half dollar; pictured specimen unidentified. The FLOAT constituent is priced on the NGC AU55 example sold in June 2018.
Obverse of a 1797 Draped Bust, Small Eagle half dollar; pictured specimen unidentified. The FLOAT constituent is priced on the NGC AU55 example sold in June 2018.

1797 Draped Bust Half Dollar (Small Eagle)

Maker
U.S. Mint (Philadelphia)
Year
1797
Rank
66 of 100
Identifier
50c silver, Draped Bust, Small Eagle, NGC AU55

1797 Draped Bust Half Dollar (Small Eagle)

Realized at auction: $150,000, dated 2018-06-10. This is a realized sale. Somebody paid it.

What is it, and why is it in the FLOAT 100?

One of the rarest early-type half dollars (only 1796-1797 Small Eagle halves exist); a famous two-year type rarity.

50c silver, Draped Bust, Small Eagle, NGC AU55

What is the best-sourced number for it?

Figure
$150,000
Kind
Realized at auction
Date
2018-06-10

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, 1797 Draped Bust Half Dollar (Small Eagle) is number 65 of 100 in the coins entries of the FLOAT 100. 92 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (66 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

How this is made

The figure
One reference price, shown with its own kind. FLOAT does not average it with anything or adjust it for time.
Realized or not
A realized price is a completed sale. A market asking price and a price-guide value are not sales, and are labeled as such wherever they appear.
Why no grade ladder
Most FLOAT 100 entries are individual objects. There is one of this, so there is no population and no spread across grades to show.
Archive
2026-08-08

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