“Thar she blows!”

1830 US Half Dollar, Capped Bust, Lettered Edge, small ‘0’ in date

This particular coin is in pretty good nick for its age. It comes late in the production of the series.

Appealing time

Fortunately for me that hasn’t detracted too much from its overall appeal…I quite like the US Capped Bust coins, particularly as quite a few are early 19th century.

Nice, large .900 fine silver coins some of them…

Australian candidate

There is good reason to believe that examples did the rounds down under, and were likely heavily used when available – interesting date range…

This is because, by the 1830s, whaling was an established industry in Australia, biggest at Hobart and Port Jackson – “Australia’s Early Whalemen” provided tons of great detail ( read the book review post ).

So when considering coins like this that formed part of Australia’s early currency, I guess you’d want dates before 1830 or so, ideally, and could extend that range into maybe the 1840s..?

US to Hobart, circa 1830

It would’ve been an interesting journey, indeed if it ever took place – we’ll just never know for this specific coin…

…anyway, certainly more than a few ended up outward bound on a United States whaleship and headed for the ‘Line’.

Such ships were often prepared for a voyage of up to 3 year’s duration, but still had to come in from their cruising to stock up every now and then.

And that’s of course when the silver changed hands! ( probably more than once! )

Happy Collecting!