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Sale 78
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Lot 1774
1814, 4 over 3 BD-1 Rarity 4+. NGC graded MS-61. Struck on a problem free planchet with faint clash marks as made. It is the frosty mint luster that grabs the attention of this popular type coin. Delicate golden hues further adds to the eye appeal. Substantial detail to the highpoints on this well struck example including the hair curls above Liberty’s ear and brow, those cascading along the neck, and other features of the portrait and most surrounding stars. A few stars at top are weak, as are the rim denticles along the same portion. Reverse is very crisply defined. The mostly warm honey-gold toning resides around the devices and displays modest, yet pleasing rising and falling luster effects as the viewer turns the coin under the light. There is a full accompaniment of frost throughout, including the key high points where surface friction first occurs.
The 1813-29 and the following (Kneass's Modified Capped Heads, 1829-34) are by far the most significant and difficult of all half-eagle designs to obtain. The reason is not low mintage, per se. Instead, it falls to extensive melting: a byproduct of the influx of silver from Mexican and Peruvian mines. This increase in the supply of silver on world markets compared with gold lowered the price of silver calculated in gold, the silver-to-gold ratio, emerging as an relentless rise in the value of gold reckoned in Mexican dollars. According to the Breen reference, "This is the reality behind the numerous statements about the world ratio rising from Alexander Hamilton's original 1791-92 estimate (15 to 1) to nearly 18 to 1. Its major side effects included hoarding and melting of "old tenor" gold coins when their bullion value exceeded their face value by enough to afford a profit over the cost of melting. In the National Archives is a reference to public assays (Paris, 1831), at one of which some 40,000 U.S. half eagles of "recent mintage" (the elusive 1815-30) were melted and found to be of full weight and fineness. This was doubtless only one among many such holocausts, and more were to come through 1837." Pop 11; 29 finer, 14 in 62, 7 in 63, 8 in 64 (PCGS # 8117) .
Estimated Value $15,000 - 17,000.
The Del Valle Collection.
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| Realized $24,675 |
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