The 1832 Half-Eagle with twelve obverse stars ranks among the greatest rarities in United States numismatics. Its status as such was known even in the formative years of coin collecting in this country. The United States Mint, aware of the coin's importance, traded duplicate coins from its own collection to obtain a specimen of the date for its holdings in 1883; that specimen has since been transferred to the Smithsonian Institution along with the other coins from the Mint Cabinet. A list of past owners of this coin reads like a "Who's Who?" in United States coin collecting; Lorin G. Parmelee (Byron Reed obtained his specimen, the piece offered here, from the Parmelee sale in 1890), Henry O. Granberg, Matthew Stickney, John Story Jenks, Colonel E.H.R. Green (who owned two examples), Josiah Lilly, King Farouk and Louis Eliasberg were all owners of an 1832 twelve star obverse Half-Eagle. For the record, history is silent as to why this variety exists. Most scholars agree that it was probably just a moment of inattention on a mint employee's part; after all, the stars are evenly spaced and it probably did not occur to the employee that thirteen stars would not fit around Liberty's head until six or seven stars had been punched into the die. Perhaps the employee continued from that point by simply keeping the stars evenly spaced so as not to call attention to his blunder. The 1832 Half-Eagle is not alone, however, in erroneous star counts. In 1828, a Half-Cent die was also produced with just twelve obverse stars (see lot 241). While not a great rarity, the Half-Cent variety is widely collected by early copper enthusiasts. Perhaps the same employee was responsible for both of these errors. Regardless of the reason for its existence, it can be safely assumed that the employee probably had no idea he was creating one of the premier rarities in American coinage when he miscounted the stars 164 years ago.