1904-O 50C AU55 Certification #20243674, PCGS #6499

Super tough date in AU - Decent coin with a splash of color that looks better in hand.

Ron Guth

The 1904-O Half Dollar is decidedly scarce and it is difficult to locate in Mint State grades above MS64.  In terms of the total number of Mint State examples, the 1904-O compares favorably with other scarce dates such as 1903-S, 1908-S, and, surprisingly, 1904-S (which is only slighy more rare).  Superb quality 1904-O Half Dollars are very rare and top out at MS67.  The strike on the 1904-O is usually quite good -- not full, but closer than most O-Mint Barber Halves.  Neither of the two PCGS MS67 examples has appeared at auction, and one of them might be the unusual Prooflike Gem from the 1998 sale of John Jay Pittman coins.  At that time, the cataloguer, David Akers, called the coin either a Branch Mint Proof or a possible presentation piece.  He described the coin as not just being Prooflike, but that it had all the hallmarks of a Proof.  That coin brought a record $28,600 almost twenty years ago; who knows what it would bring today?

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David Akers

In any mint state grade, the 1904-O Barber Half Dollar is a notable rarity, among the very rarest in the entire series, although definitely not as rare as the 1904-S... Relatively few Gems of this issue exist...