1853 Half Dollar
There are many things that are abnormal about most of the half dollars made in 1853. They do not weigh the same as any made before that date, and they do not look like any made before or after. If it were not for the recorded history of these pieces, it would be logical to conclude that they were not genuine. What we do know is that there are two distinct kinds of half dollars made that year and that the government took a good chunk of silver out of most of them.
From 1836 to 1852 all half dollars weighed 13.36 grams, and were made of .900 fine silver. For most of that time the silver content was worth slightly less than the face value. Then in 1852 the price of silver began to rise to a point where it became profitable to melt the larger United States silver coins for their added value. Congress took action to curb this on February 21, 1853, by authorizing a lower weight standard for the half dollar, quarter, dime and half dime. The silver content of the half dollar was lowered by about seven percent to 12.44 grams of .900 fine silver that was enough to save it from speculators.
The legislation required some immediate changes at the Mint, and it was decided that the new 1853 coins of lower weight should look different so that they would not be confused with the heavier pieces. The change that was agreed upon was easy to accomplish by adding a large arrowhead on each side of the date, and a burst of rays behind the eagle on the reverse. The resulting design was anything but artistic, and it was used only for the remainder of the year 1853. After that the arrows were retained, but the rays on the reverse were removed, and that design was used through 1855. It was reasoned that everyone would realize by then that the newer coins were of the lighter weight standard and resist melting them.
The weight change of 1853 was implemented early in the year, but not before production had begun with some coins on the old heavy standard. Many of those dimes, quarters and halves were melted at the Mint prior to release and other old coins were destroyed at the Mint to provide silver for the lighter coinage. All of the new coinage of 1853 was identified by the addition of arrows at the date, but the half dollars seemed to be the most conspicuous because of their size and the large amount of silver they contained. The silver dollar however, probably for political reasons, was never changed.
As a one-year-only type design, the 1853 half dollar with arrows and rays has always been very popular. 3.5 million pieces were made in Philadelphia, and another 1.3 million in New Orleans. Many of them were saved, and they are still easy to acquire at modest prices. The other Liberty Seated half dollars of 1853, the heavier ones without arrows and rays that were made in New Orleans, are another story. Most of them seem to have been melted before they ever reached circulation.
Today there are only three known examples of the heavyweight 1853-O half dollars. The first recorded piece appeared at an auction in the 1880s. All known surviving pieces are heavily circulated, but even in worn condition they are considered to be prize possessions for anyone fortunate enough to own one. A specimen that was sold at auction several years ago brought $75,000. It left no doubt in anybody’s mind that the half dollars of 1853 are indeed special in many ways.
Liquid Assets
A brick of tea presented to Tzar Nicholas II, 1891
Coin collectors are often drawn to the more bizarre forms of money that have been used throughout the world. Some of the strange items used in barter or trade included huge stone wheels on the island of Yap in the Pacific, feathers, shells and beads of all sorts. But one of the most unusual forms of money has to be the bricks of tea once used as money and an international item of trade by Chinese merchants.
Tea has been the beverage of choice in China for hundreds of years. There is evidence that tea drinking was popular in the eighth century, and that its use spread to Russia and Western Asia during Mongol times. By the 16th century the use of tea was well established throughout Europe, and in time English colonists brought the custom to America along with the first settlers. Today tea is used by more people, and in greater quantity, than any beverage but water.
The use of tea as a commercial trade item probably began with the heavy demand for fine Chinese tea from the Russian nobility. It was considered very valuable and only the rich could afford it. At first, dried leaves were transported from China to Russia by caravans of camels over the treacherous silk route. In time it was discovered that a more convenient commodity could be fashioned by processing the tea and forming it into solid bricks about the size of a large book. Eventually tea bricks became an accepted medium of exchange that could pass the same as silver and other trade items both in domestic and foreign trade.
There are no records of exactly when the Chinese pressed tea bricks began being shipped outside the country. Some believe that it may date back to very early times. The first written account of the use of brick tea as both a drink and a medium of exchange was described by Abbi Huc in the account of his travels in Tartary, Tibet and China during 1844-1846. Later reports confirm its continued use as money in remote parts of Central Asia until as recently as 1935. The average brick was valued at one rupee, and used for paying wages, buying provisions, and in ordinary trading.
In Tibet, swords, horses and other property were sometimes priced in a given number of tea bricks or packets (of 4 bricks). In Mongolia cattle and wood were likewise priced in terms of bricks. For smaller purchases, pieces were broken from the bricks and passed by weight. The natives of Siberia preferred brick tea money to metallic coins because of its beneficial use as a medicine for coughs, colds and lung diseases, as well as a refreshing beverage; other forms of money being much more prone to fluctuation in value and loss to bandits.
Most of the brick tea was made in China and carried by camel and yak caravans to the distant lands of Tibet, Mongolia and Siberia. Although this tea was used as a form of money during transit, when it reached Russia it was used for a beverage by the Russian army, tourists, hunters and sportsmen because of its convenient form. British traveler Thomas Atkinson reported in 1860 that a chief of the Khirgix tribe served him a bowl of brick tea with clotted cream, salt and millet meal added, boiled for a half hour and served hot. “I cannot say that the beverage is either bad or particularly clean,” Atkinson noted, “still hunger has often caused me to make a very good meal of it, but I think of it as rather tea soup than tea.” The Tibetans, it is said, enjoyed their brick tea by boiling it with yak butter in a large cauldron.
Collectors of odd and unusual forms of money treasure the old bricks that were made for use in trade and drinking. Very few have survived their original purpose, and intact bricks that still have clear images and inscriptions are valued highly. The pieces made for trade in Russia, showing both Russian and Chinese inscriptions seem to be the rarest, and sell in the $1,000.00 range. Those made and used during World War II are considered the most common of the original pieces but still bring prices in the hundreds of dollars. The modern bricks that were sold in U.S. grocery stores for actual use as tea have no collector value, but they are a colorful reminder of one of the most unusual forms of money ever used anywhere in the world.