1803 Draped Bust Half Dollar
Circulation strike struck at the Philadelphia Mint · 188,234 made
- Mintage
- 188,234
- Metal
- 89.24% silver, 10.76% copper
- Weight
- 13.48 g
- Diameter
- 32.5 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 1803 Draped Bust Half Dollar worth?
This is one of the dates collectors hunt for. A genuine 1803 is valuable in any condition, even well worn. That's exactly why fakes and altered coins turn up so often.
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 1803 Draped Bust Half Dollar rare?
- Yes. Only 188,234 were made, 4th lowest of the 7 regular issues in the series.
- Is the 1803 Draped Bust Half Dollar silver?
- Yes. It's 89.24% silver, 10.76% copper and holds 0.3868 troy ounces of pure silver.
- Where is the mint mark on an 1803 Draped Bust Half Dollar?
- No mint mark. Struck in Philadelphia.
- Which Philadelphia dates near 1803 are scarcer?
- The 1802 at 29,890, the 1801 at 30,289. So the 1803 is on the scarcer side for those years.
- How many 1803 Draped Bust Half Dollar coins were made?
- 188,234.
What to check on your 1803
- There's no mint mark on this one, so the date and condition are what matter.
- 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. Check the hair, drapery and eagle's feathers. Original surfaces are rare and valuable.
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 date have not been tooled or added, or buy one already certified by PCGS or NGC.
The story of the 1803
Philadelphia ramped up hard in 1803: 188,234 coins, about 6.3 times the 1802 run. After that, Philadelphia didn't make another until 1805.
No other mint struck it for circulation that year, so every 1803 you find is from Philadelphia. In the whole series, its mintage sits closest to the 1805 (211,722) and the 1807 (301,076).
Across Philadelphia's 7 Draped Bust Half Dollar issues, the hardest to find is the 1796 with 3,918 made. The 1803 is one of the easier ones. Within the 1800s it's 3rd smallest of 6, between the 1801 (30,289) and the 1805 (211,722).
Heraldic eagle halves (1801 to 1807)
Half dollars returned in 1801 with the heraldic eagle reverse. The 1801 (30,289) and 1802 (29,890) are scarce, but output climbed to 188,234 in 1803, which comes with small and large 3 varieties. No halves are dated 1804. The 1805/4 overdate shows that an unused 1804 die was altered and put to work.
The 1806 is the most varied date, with knobbed and pointed 6, an 1806/5 overdate and reverses with or without a stem through the eagle's claw. Mintage reached 839,576 that year. In 1807 the Draped Bust half was struck early in the year before John Reich's Capped Bust design took over. Heraldic halves are the most available early half dollar type, usually seen in Very Good to Fine with weak stars.
Heraldic eagle halves of 1805 to 1807 were struck in much larger numbers than the earlier dates, so they are the most collectible pieces of the type. The 1805/4 overdate and the 1806 varieties with a pointed or knobbed 6 are popular with specialists, who identify die pairs by Overton numbers. Many coins show adjustment marks, fine file lines made at the Mint to bring heavy planchets down to the legal weight, which are not counted as damage.
Elsewhere in US coinage in 1803
The last silver dollars for decades were struck with this date. Dollar coinage stopped in 1804 and President Jefferson's administration formally suspended it in 1806 because the coins were being exported rather than circulating.
How to recognize it
Liberty faces right with a ribbon in her hair and a drape across her bust, with LIBERTY above, stars around and the date below. The first coins of 1796 and 1797 show a small eagle inside a wreath; from 1801 the reverse shows a heraldic eagle with a shield on its breast. The edge is lettered FIFTY CENTS OR HALF A DOLLAR.
Mintage chart
Specifications
| Series | Draped Bust Half Dollar (1796–1807) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1803 |
| Mint | Philadelphia Mint |
| Mint mark | None |
| Strike type | Circulation strike |
| Mintage | 188,234 |
| Face value | 50¢ |
| Composition | 89.24% silver, 10.76% copper |
| Weight | 13.48 grams |
| Diameter | 32.5 mm |
| Edge | Lettered |
| Silver content | 0.3868 troy oz (12.030 g) |
| Designer | Robert Scot |
Mintage: United States half dollar mintage figures (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0), compiled from US Mint records and the Guide Book of United States Coins. How we build these pages.