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1795 $5 Bust. Lg Eagle NGC MS61

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / US Coins Start Price:100.00 USD Estimated At:100.00 - 1,000,000.00 USD
1795 $5 Bust. Lg Eagle NGC MS61
<b>1795 &#36;5 Capped Bust. Large eagle. NGC graded MS61.</b> NGC Pop: 2/9. Encapsulated in NGC holder 695389-003. The reverse of the half eagle was not changed to the heraldic design until 1797, but the Mint&#39;s initial practice of keeping earlier dated dies on the shelf made possible the production of approximately five hundred pieces dated 1795 with the new style eagle reverse, of which about 10 percent survive today. This example was struck from the same obverse die as B. 7-H of the small eagle type. The reverse is unique to this die marriage and can be recognized by a horizontal die break near the lower border. The surfaces of this rare early half eagle display absolutely no wear and possess a pronounced and quite lovely fresh gold to light green-gold finish with some subtle reflectiveness in the fields.

How do numismatic scholars know that this coin was struck in 1798 and not 1795? First of all, in the field of stars above the eagle on the reverse there are 16 stars. Archives records show the Philadelphia Mint kept adding stars to coins as states joined the union, hence from 1794 through June 1, 1796 all silver and gold coins should show 15 stars to represent the states of the union. On June 1, 1796, Tennessee joined, making a total of 16 states, and therefore 16 stars. Logic tells us that this reverse die was engraved sometime after June of 1796. In addition, the heraldic eagle design wasn&#39;t adopted until 1796, at a time when the Mint had decided to stop increasing the number of stars every time a new state joined the union. Room to do this was running out &#40;also some of the Mint&#39;s employees seemed to have trouble counting that high, as numerous oddities in the star count occur in various denominations&#41;. Along with the 1798 small eagle reverse, this is one of the most curious die pairings to come out of the Philadelphia Mint.

The circumstances for why this issue came about may never be known, but they are to be a sort of emergency issue similar to the 1798 small eagle reverse half eagle. Apparently no current dies were on had except for these older dies &#40;which were still serviceable&#41;, and pressed in to service. Most scholars now agree that the coins were struck in 1798 <b>&#40;PCGS # 8075&#41;</b> <i>
The Springdale Collection of Early U.S. Gold Coins.</i>

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