1797 $5 BD-2, Small Eagle, 15 Stars MS(PCGS#519864)

The August 2013 Chicago ANA World's Fair of Money

拍卖行

Stack's Bowers

批号

4471

等级

AU53

价格

792,509

详细说明

Extremely Rare 1797 Small Eagle $5 15 Stars 1797 Capped Bust Right Half Eagle. Small Eagle. BD-2. Rarity-7. 15 Stars, Narrow Date. AU-53 (NGC). The attractive medium gold surfaces display desirable nuances of deeper gold toning toward the rims. Minor handling is consistent with the grade, with no serious distractions beyond a gentle rim bump near 4:00, which would serve to identify this piece in the future. Struck from the latest state of the dies, as described by John Dannreuther in his work, Early U.S. Gold Coin Varieties, with extensive cracks seen on the reverse die. This die had earlier been paired with a different obverse, where it was initially cracked in use, but remained solid enough to be used in this later marriage. The obverse, according to Dannreuther, should exhibit a crack in this state along the left side of Liberty's head, beginning at the edge and passing between star 1 and the lowest hair curl. This is not detected on the present example. However, there is a crack well within the cap and hair curls, about a third of the way into the portrait from the back, and it is possibly what is referred to by Dannreuther. The die state seems similar to that seen on the Harry W. Bass Core Collection example, plated both in Dannreuther and in the Bass Museum Sylloge. The Bass Collection coin (ex Garrett) is a little sharper, though striking characteristics are similar. Some softness on this coin can be attributed to a thinness of the planchet where a light adjustment was made prior to striking. Traces of the tell-tale adjustment marks can seen at the rim from about 2:00 to 4:00, and at the corresponding area of the reverse. The detail is perfectly satisfying, though perhaps it is of little significance on such a rare variety. All 1797 half eagle varieties are difficult to find, and curiously, the Small Eagle type overall gets rarer as the dates progress, with 1795 really the most frequently seen. This follows the reported mintages of 8,707 coins for 1795, 6,196 in 1796, and just 3,609 in 1797. The 1798 is prohibitively rare, of course, with an unknown number produced bearing the Small Eagle reverse. It is believed that just seven or eight coins exist today. There are four die varieties among the 1797 Small Eagle half eagles, and all are rather rare. It is estimated that just 20-25 are known of the most commonvariety, while the rarest is represented by a single coin. The variety offered here is the second rarest among them, with just 8-12 survivors believed to exist, per Dannreuther's research. Harry Bass actually owned two of these coins, and this one is considerably sharper than the one we sold in Part II of his collection in October 1999:720. Three to four years seems to be the normal time span between offerings of the rare 15-Star 1797 half eagle. For the collector seeking this rarity, this is an important opportunity. PCGS# 8069. Provenance: From the 1797 Collection; Earlier, private collection to Dr. Donald F. Knaack, April 2008 at $200,000; private treaty to present consignor.