1795 $5 BD-3, Small Eagle MS(PCGS#519852)

Harry W. Bass, Jr. II

拍卖行

Bowers & Merena

批号

711

等级

MS63

价格

1,379,678

详细说明

1795 BD-3, Breen-6412, Breen 2-C. Rarity-5. Small Eagle. MS-63 (PCGS). A wonderful example in brilliant yellow gold, the ob¬ verse reflective with frosty lustre on reverse. Sharply struck and well centered with all design detail fully defined. 1 his is an ex¬ ceptional 1795 half eagle, a coin for the connoisseur. PCGS Population: 4; 2 finer (MS-65 finest). The obverse has extensive die rust and minor cracks. The reverse has a small patch of die rust at right top of F. These 1795 Small Eagle coins were the first half eagles struck by the Mint in Philadelphia. For many years, the half eagle would become the “workhorse gold denomination with mintages far outdistancing quarter eagles and issues continuing long after the eagle was discontinued in 1804. From the period between 1795 and 1834 (through the With Motto series), over 600,000 ounces of gold were coined into half eagles, just under 76,000 ounces into eagles, and under 10,000 ounces into quarter eagles! The half eagles were, in fact, our nation’s first gold coins, struck prior to mintage of the eagles. As Breen noted: “[Mint Director Henry William] DeSaussure publicized the Mint’s readiness to coin deposits of gold, and on July 31 he proudly signed his first delivery warrant, authorizing the Coiner to transfer to the Treasurer of the Mint a batch of 744 half eagles.” This variety was classified by Breen as a “Wide Date” which he believed was one of the first to be coined. From our sale of February 1974, Lot 760