1025

[L#1025] 1807 Bust Left $5 NGC MS65

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:24,000.00 USD Estimated At:40,000.00 - 55,000.00 USD
[L#1025] 1807 Bust Left $5 NGC MS65
Lustrous but deep greenish golden frostiness dominates the surfaces of this beautiful coin, with a particular glow to the reverse fields. The surfaces are immaculate; devices very sharp, in fact, struck with almost mathematical precision by the dies. Truly remarkable in this state of preservation.

What ever became of all the early Half Eagles? Why was their mintage so large, and yet today only a few survive? Listen to Neil Carothers (Fractional Money) recount one of the problems plaguing the American Mint in its early days:

"General economic forces were also unfavorable to coinage progress. The ratio of 15 to 1, very close to the world's market ratio when Hamilton selected it [1792], was out of line before the end of the century. By 1799 the ratio in Hamburg and London was 15-3/4 to 1. At this rate it did not pay to take gold bullion to the mint. Gold was not imported when the balance of trade brought metal to the United States. The coinage of silver exceeded gold coinage each year save one in the period from 1805 to 1834. Gold coinage did not cease, however, small supplies of bullion coming from Mexico, the West Indies, and in later years from Georgia and North Carolina. Market reactions to metal values were not sensitive in that day, and the coinage of gold continued in the face of an adverse ratio. But United States gold was not a general medium of circulation after 1800, and after 1825, when a dollar in gold had reached a value of $1.02 of silver, it ceased to circulate entirely." Unlike the similarly designed Bust Half Dollars of this period, the Bust $5 gold pieces nearly all disappeared.