1/2 Dollar '1814 Half Dollar' Pattern

Judd-44 is one of a small group of platinum pattern pieces believed struck experimentally at the Philadelphia Mint in the early nineteenth century, likely to evaluate the metal's suitability for coinage rather than as any serious proposal for circulation. Platinum was being extracted from Spanish colonial sources at the time, and Congress had received at least informal proposals to incorporate it into the American coinage system.

Surviving examples number in single digits. The platinum used shows no evidence of domestic sourcing — North American platinum mining was commercially nonexistent in 1814.