1840-O Seated Liberty Half Dime (With Drapery)
Circulation strike struck at the New Orleans Mint · 240,000 made
- Mintage
- 240,000
- Metal
- 90% silver, 10% copper
- Weight
- 1.34 g
- Diameter
- 15.5 mm
Original illustration. Tap to flip. Not a photograph of the actual coin.
Face value · Metal value · Small premium · Collector premium · Significant rarity. We use bands because prices change daily.
What is an 1840-O Seated Liberty Half Dime (With Drapery) worth?
It's scarcer than a typical date, so even circulated examples sell above face and above their metal value. The best uncirculated coins are where the money is.
What would make yours worth more:
- Uncirculated condition with full original luster
- A die variety or minting error
- Certification by PCGS or NGC, which buyers expect for scarce dates
For market prices, check recent sold results for certified coins in the same grade.
Quick answers
- Is the 1840-O Seated Liberty Half Dime (With Drapery) rare?
- Yes. Only 240,000 were made, 21st lowest of the 70 regular issues in the series.
- Is the 1840-O Seated Liberty Half Dime (With Drapery) silver?
- Yes. It's 90% silver, 10% copper and holds 0.0388 troy ounces of pure silver.
- Where is the mint mark on an 1840 Seated Liberty Half Dime?
- On the reverse, below the bow of the wreath or inside the wreath, depending on the year. Philadelphia coins have no mint mark. On this coin the mark is O, for New Orleans.
- Which New Orleans dates near 1840 are scarcer?
- The 1838-O at 70,000, the 1844-O at 220,000. So the 1840-O is on the scarcer side for those years.
- How many 1840-O Seated Liberty Half Dime (With Drapery) coins were made?
- 240,000.
What to check on your 1840-O
- Make sure the mint mark really is a O. A worn or filled mark can be misread. It's what separates your coin from the 1840 (310,085 made).
- Check the date and mint mark under magnification for tooling or added letters. Scarce dates are the ones forgers alter.
- Don't clean it. Cleaning leaves fine scratches and an unnatural shine that collectors avoid.
- Old coins pick up damage over a long life. Look for holes, bends, scratches or signs of cleaning before you judge the grade, because a damaged coin sells for a fraction of a problem-free one.
- Judge the grade under good light. LIBERTY on the shield wears first; a full LIBERTY marks Fine or better. These tiny coins are often bent, cleaned or holed.
Never clean it. Collectors pay strong premiums for original surfaces and natural toning on a date like this. A cleaned coin can lose half its value or more. Low-mintage dates attract altered and counterfeit coins. Check that the mint mark and date have not been tooled or added, or buy one already certified by PCGS or NGC.
The story of the 1840-O
Production at New Orleans fell off a cliff in 1840. Only 240,000 were made, against 1 million the year before. That drop is why the 1840-O is the one people look for. In 1840 the figure was 695,000.
1840 came to 310,085 and 1840-O came to 695,000 and 1840 came to 1 million, so neither mint's 1840 coin is much scarcer than the other. In the whole series, its mintage sits closest to the 1869-S (230,000) and the 1852-O (260,000).
Across New Orleans's 21 Seated Liberty Half Dime issues, the hardest to find is the 1838-O with 70,000 made. The 1840-O is on the scarcer side of the middle. Within the 1840s it's 4th smallest of 18, between the 1844-O (220,000) and the 1840 (With Drapery) (310,085).
No stars, then stars, then drapery (1837 to 1840)
Christian Gobrecht's Seated Liberty half dime appeared in 1837, the same year as the dime. The first coins have no stars on the obverse, just Liberty and the date. Philadelphia struck 1,405,000 of them, in Large Date and Small Date forms. In 1838 the new New Orleans Mint made its first half dimes, 70,000 coins that also lack stars. The 1838-O is the key of the early years and a significant rarity in any grade. Only these two issues, the 1837 and the 1838-O, carry the No Stars design, so both are popular type coins.
Philadelphia added thirteen stars around Liberty in 1838 and struck 2,225,000 coins with Large Stars and Small Stars. In 1839 Philadelphia and New Orleans made almost the same number, 1,069,150 and 1,034,039. Late in 1840 Robert Ball Hughes reworked Liberty, adding drapery at her left elbow. Both mints struck both styles that year. Philadelphia made 1,034,000 without drapery and 310,085 with it. New Orleans made 695,000 without drapery and 240,000 with it, which makes the 1840-O With Drapery the scarcer of the pair.
All half dimes of these years are 15.5 millimeters across and weigh 1.34 grams of 90 percent silver. They are tiny and easy to lose, so many survivors show bends, holes or harsh cleaning. Check for stars first, then look below Liberty's elbow for the drapery.
Elsewhere in US coinage in 1840
Drapery was added below Liberty's elbow on the Seated Liberty dime, quarter and half dollar. The Seated Liberty dollar went into regular production.
How to recognize it
Liberty sits on a rock with her right hand on a shield crossed by a scroll reading LIBERTY and her left hand holding a pole topped by a liberty cap. The 1837 and 1838-O half dimes show nothing else on the obverse but the date. From 1838 to 1859 thirteen stars ring the design and from 1860 they are replaced by UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Drapery falls from her left elbow on coins from late 1840 on. Arrows beside the date mark the lighter coins of 1853 to 1855. Until 1859 the reverse shows HALF DIME inside a laurel wreath circled by UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. From 1860 a cereal wreath of corn, wheat, maple and oak leaves surrounds HALF DIME alone. Mint marks for New Orleans and San Francisco are on the reverse near the bow.
Mintage chart
Specifications
| Series | Seated Liberty Half Dime (1837–1873) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1840 |
| Mint | New Orleans Mint |
| Mint mark | "O" |
| Strike type | Circulation strike |
| Mintage | 240,000 |
| Face value | 5¢ |
| Composition | 90% silver, 10% copper |
| Weight | 1.34 grams |
| Diameter | 15.5 mm |
| Edge | Reeded |
| Silver content | 0.0388 troy oz (1.206 g) |
| Designer | Christian Gobrecht |
Other 1840 Seated Liberty Half Dime issues
| Coin | Mintage | Type | Silver |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1840 Seated Liberty Half Dime | 1,034,000 | Circulation strike | 0.0388 oz |
| 1840 Seated Liberty Half Dime (With Drapery) | 310,085 | Circulation strike | 0.0388 oz |
| 1840-O Seated Liberty Half Dime | 695,000 | Circulation strike | 0.0388 oz |
| 1840-O Seated Liberty Half Dime (With Drapery) | 240,000 | Circulation strike | 0.0388 oz |
Mintage: US Mint records as published in standard references, each figure checked against at least two independent sources. How we build these pages.