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[L#1016] 1795 Sm Eagle S/D $5 PCGS MS63

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:90,000.00 USD Estimated At:150,000.00 - 200,000.00 USD
[L#1016] 1795 Sm Eagle S/D $5 PCGS MS63
This coin is utterly incredible, certainly one of the earliest struck. In our opinion, it is also undergraded and could easily be a MS64 coin -- a specimen clearly superior to the Oliver Young which sold last summer for $184,000. A popular and easily recognized variety, the engraver mistakenly entered the misspelled word STATED in the reverse die and corrected this by punching an S over the errant D. Two obverse dies were used with this single reverse; while neither obverse was used with any other reverse dies.

Pleasing greenish gold surfaces with a few minor abrasions. Sharply struck as are most 1795 half eagles, with sharp central obverse and reverse designs. The border is full and bold on both sides. Fields are decidedly prooflike and glittering with originality. Almost unique to this 1795 S over D variety are the numerous spikes from the rim denticles on both sides. This is the usually seen die marriage of this intriguing blundered reverse. The Rarity-4 rating by Walter Breen is probably accurate today. The two varieties sharing a common reverse represent a separate sequence not die linked to earlier or later 1795 half eagle varieties. The emission sequence, based on Breen variety notations, is 3-D and 4-D and it is entirely possible that these two varieties were the first struck.