Draped Bust Half Cent (1800–1808): What's It Worth?

Specifications

Denomination: 1/2 Cent
Series: Half Cents
Designer: Robert Scot
Years of issue: 1800–1808
Composition: 100% Copper
Weight: 5.44 g
Diameter: 23.55 mm
Key mintages: Per-year: 1800 202,908; 1802 20,266; 1803 92,000; 1804 1,055,312; 1805 814,464; 1806 356,000; 1807 476,000 (disputed); 1808 400,000

Melt value: $0.08copper $0.44/ozt · prices as of Sep 16, 2026

1806 Draped Bust half cent (obverse and reverse). Smithsonian Institution, National Numismatic Collection — CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.

A Draped Bust half cent (1800–1808) starts around $90 in Mint State per Greysheet’s CPG listings, with key varieties — like the 1808/7 overdate — listed into six figures (Greysheet).

History

The half cent was the smallest denomination ever struck by the United States — worth half of one cent — produced from 1793 through 1857 (Greysheet).
The copper half cent was authorized on April 2, 1792, alongside the cent; during its 64-year lifespan five basic design types were struck (CoinWorld).
The Draped Bust design was used on half cents from 1800 to 1808, following the Liberty Cap type; all were struck at the Philadelphia Mint and carry no mint mark (Greysheet).
The Draped Bust was the second design type for the half cent, a denomination intended as a “coin for the everyman” for small transactions — but it never resonated with the public, and Congress abolished the denomination with the Coinage Act of February 21, 1857 (PCGS).
Early Mint records give official mintages, though some figures are disputed: for example, the 1807 half cent’s reported 476,000 mintage is contested because only one die pair is known, and half-cent specialist Bill Eckberg attributes 199,000 of that figure to the preceding 1806 issue (PCGS).

What is it worth

Greysheet’s CPG catalog lists Draped Bust half-cent values between $65 and $259,000 across the series’ 74 distinct entries (Greysheet).
A common 1800 half cent in Mint State Brown lists at $90 on the low end of its range (Greysheet).
The headline variety is the 1808/7 overdate: its FS-301 (C-1) variety in Mint State Brown lists from $34,000 to $259,000 (Greysheet).
CoinWorld names the series keys as the 1793, 1796 No Pole, 1802/0 Reverse of 1800, and 1831 — making the 1802/0 overdate the key date within the Draped Bust run (CoinWorld).
Prices move with copper-toned originality: Red-Brown and Red Mint State examples carry large premiums over Brown ones (Greysheet).

What drives the premium

Smallest U.S. denomination ever — a built-in conversation piece for type collectors (Greysheet).
Low mintages in the early dates: the 1802 issue saw only 20,266 struck, the lowest of the Draped Bust run (Wikipedia).
Overdate varieties (1802/0, 1808/7) are the most sought-after die varieties in the series (CoinWorld; Greysheet).
Original mint red color: Red-Brown and Red examples are exponentially scarcer than Brown ones (Greysheet).

How to identify the valuable variety

Check the date first: the 1802/0 shows a clear 0 under the 2, and all 1802 half cents are overdates (CoinWeek).
The 1808/7 overdate shows the 7 beneath the 8 (Greysheet; CoinWeek).
On the 1807, a diagnostic of the reverse die carried over from 1806 is a small spike protruding from the right side of the fraction bar (PCGS).
Draped Bust half cents are pure copper, 23.55 mm across, with a plain edge — larger than a modern cent but worth half as much (CoinWeek).

Specifications

Composition: pure copper (Greysheet; CoinWeek) — the bronze 95% copper alloy did not arrive until 1837 (Greysheet)
Weight: 5.44 g (CoinWeek)
Diameter: 23.55 mm (CoinWeek)
Edge: plain (CoinWeek)
Designer: Robert Scot, obverse and reverse (CoinWeek)
Mint: Philadelphia, no mint mark (Greysheet)
Mintage: 1800: 202,908; 1802: 20,266; 1803: 92,000; 1804: 1,055,312; 1805: 814,464; 1806: 356,000; 1807: 476,000 (disputed — see above); 1808: 400,000 (Wikipedia)

Collector notes

Known varieties include the 1802 2 Over 0 (Reverse of 1800 and Second Reverse), 1803 Widely Spaced 3, 1804 Plain 4 and Crosslet 4 (Stems and Stemless), 1804 Spiked Chin, 1805 Medium 5 Stemless, 1806 Small and Large 6, and 1808 8 Over 7 (CoinWeek).
Early American copper is collected by die variety (Cohen numbers); buy attributed examples from reputable dealers, as the series is heavily studied and fakes of the key dates exist.
Because official mintage figures for the early Mint are unreliable, treat the published numbers as approximate for the scarcer dates (PCGS).