Lot 2850
1810 $5 Capped Draped Bust. Large date, large 5. PCGS graded AU-50. Pleasing natural antique golden toning. A first-rate specimen of this Type and grade with luster still showing around the stars, legends, and flowing across the deepest recesses of the devices. Satisfactorily struck for the date, indeed, about as excellent as this date is ever found. Only a few stars on the left side lack their centrils. The coin's designer would have like this one! (Note the small "chip" out of one point on the last star on the right. This is Assistant Engraver John Reich's signature, the man who designed the coin and remained at the mint until 1817.) (PCGS # 8108) .
Historic note: According to scholarship done by Bunker Hill Rare Coins, "An important innovation by Reich was to put the denomination on gold and silver coins. This had not been previously done at the mint. By 1815 what John Reich had accomplished, for the first time in U.S. Mint history, was to create a set of circulating coins with a common obverse device; that of the Capped Liberty. No one knows for sure who was the inspiration for this woman depicted on Reich's coins. A 19th century writer speculated that the model was "Reich's fat German mistress." Reich modified the half eagle in 1813 to create what was to be known as the Capped Head design."
Estimated Value $6,000 - 6,500.
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| Realized $6,900 |
