 1847 Very Choice Brilliant Proof. Silver-gray with a touch of gold on both sides and quite attractive for this early Proof issue. The surfaces are well preserved and examination will scarcely locate the faint hairlines which nudged this one back from a Gem grade. There is a high wire rim extending around most of the obverse and reverse, and the coin may have been struck ever so slightly struck off-center. The fields are deep and watery, while the devices show the expected frostiness. The mirror finish is present below the rocky perch to the rim, and lacking reflectivity only in a small area below Liberty's chin. The reverse is similar with the die polish extending between the shield stripes, and lacking in the small areas between the olive leaves and lower two arrowheads. Die file lines extend up from the rim toward 'NIT' at different angles, and at 'AL' of HALF.
Importantly, this same reverse die was later used to coin Proof Half Dollars dated 1848 and 1849, examples of which follow. There are perhaps 8 to 10 known of this date in Proof, one of which is in the National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonian Institution.
Ex Reed Hawn Collection (Stack's, October 1993, lot 688); John C. Halsell, Jr., lot 677; Reed Hawn Collection (Stack's 1973, lot 162); C. A. Cass ''Empire Collection'' (Stack's, September 1957, lot 1380).
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