Glossary - An Introduction to Coin Investing & Collecting

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H

Hairlines:

Tiny scratches on a coin, caused by cleaning or mishandling. When appearing in significant quantities on proofs, the coin may be called impaired.

Half cent:

U.S. copper coin (1793-1857).

Half dime:

U.S. silver coin (1794-1873). One twentieth of a dollar; five cents.

Half dollar:

U.S. coin first dated 1794. Fifty cents.

Half Eagle:

U.S. gold coin (1795-1929) with a face value of $5.

High relief:

A coin with deep concave fields, due to its design. High-relief coins required extra pressure to be fully struck and were difficult to stack. Therefore, the few coins struck in high relief by the U.S. Mint (such as the 1921 Peace dollar and the 1907 Roman Numeral Double Eagle) were made for only one year.

Hub:

A type of die used for imparting designs to working dies. Later hubs included lettering; still later ones included dates. Not used for actually striking coins.