The half cent denomination went through several design changes before being discontinued in 1857. The Classic Head type was struck sporadically from 1809 to 1836, and the Garrison Collection offered a beautiful 1810 Classic Head half cent graded MS-65+ brown with a provenance that went back to Howard Rounds Newcomb in 1935. It made its way to B. Max Mehl and then Col. E.H.R. Green by 1936.

Eric P. Newman purchased it from the Green estate and it resided with the Missouri collector for decades until it was offered as part of the collector’s Missouri Cabinet in 2014 by Ira & Larry Goldberg Auctions, where it sold for $43,700.

That price a decade ago just bested the $40,800 it realized on Jan. 11 at the post-FUN auctions. Heritage observed traces of faded red on both sides, “with lustrous light brown on the obverse and intermingled chocolate and steel on the reverse.”

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