February 16, 2009: "Half Better than Whole"

Author:
J. Agre

Concept:
The notable feature of this coin (and the thing that tells you it’s kind of a big deal) is that little 1/2 on the reverse. Because of course this same Small Eagle reverse appears on early Half Dimes, Dimes, the 1796 Quarter and Early Dollars, but only on the Half Dollar is there a denomination noted. And, of course, only the Half Dollar is a really, really rare type coin.

So our goal was to focus the reader’s attention on that small fraction in a typically indirect CRO way.

Captions that didn’t make the cut:
There were a few, but they were a little too long and a little too awkward, like this one:

"3,918 of this type were minted, but only a fraction survive."

Others were shorter, but verged on being too cryptic:

"Half > Whole."

In retrospect, maybe that last one was pretty good, but we always try to balance being interesting with being understandable, and this one just seemed too clever by half (no pun intended).

So we went with the more conventional alternative.