1835 $5, DCAM PR67+ DCAM 认证号-35286, PCGS号45298

Ron Guth

Only three 1835 Half Eagles are known in Proof condition.  Amazingly, John Jay Pittman owned two of them, both of which he purchased out of the King Farouk sale in 1954 in a LARGE LOT (can you imagine anyone putting two coins that are now worth solid six figures (and possibly seven figures) into a large lot with other coins)?  Thta's exactly what happened in 1954, when Sotheby's sold King Farouk's coins.  Much of the lotting was down under the pressure of catalog and governmental deadlines, and the 1835 Proof Half Eagles were not the only coins to be so treated.  Pittman, because he attended the sale in Cairo, Egypt, in person, had a chance to examine the lots and take advantage of his knowledge and grading acumen.  According to David Akers, who sold Pittman's collection at auction in 1997 and 1998, the large lot with the two Proof 1835 Half Eagles was "...not only one of JJP's best purchases at the Farouk sale (and that is really saying something since he purchased so many outstanding lots at that sale), it was also one of the greatest purchases of his entire career)!