This was one of the extremely rare transitional patterns that the US Mint produced as they were changing the designs of the seated liberty half dime. The main change deals with moving the legend "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" from the reverse of the coin to replace the stars on the obverse of the coin. The transitional pattern removes the legend from the reverse but still retains the stars along the rim on the 1859 obverse. Only 20 of these coins were produced and were not intended for general circulation. This pattern combination actually resulted in a coin that did not bear the name and identity of our nation!