1017

[L#1017] 1795 $5 SM EAGLE N MS58

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:18,000.00 USD Estimated At:30,000.00 - 40,000.00 USD
[L#1017] 1795 $5 SM EAGLE N MS58
The classic styling of these earliest U.S. gold coins is what enchants collectors. The present About Uncirculated 58 specimen boasts leasing orange-gold to reddish brown toning atop thoroughly lustrous fields and devices. Struck with systematic exactness throughout by the dies, every hair strand shows along with the folds in Liberty's "mob cap" and the folds in her drapery. Mintage: only 8,707 pieces.

This, our earliest gold coin, was struck during President Washington's second administration. Few people realize that Washington was one of the Mint's cheerleaders, as it were, seeing the organization through its darkest early days when congress wasn't overly keen on having such a high-cost facility funded by taxpayer money. Why, just holding a coin like this 1795 Half Eagle in one's hand brings forth a vision of those halcyon days when America was fresh out of the nest and struggling to survive, while the rest of the world seemed large and menacing. That we survived, and that this gold piece survived, it a testament to the power of an idea: that a people are fully capable of guiding their own destiny.