Lot 1434
1795 $5 Capped Bust. Small eagle. PCGS graded MS-62. Well struck on a problem-free planchet and shimmering with frosty mint luster. Delicately toned and a very impressive Small Eagle $5.00. Only 8,707 struck for our first half eagle. One of the most important early type coins for the advanced gold-collecting numismatist to acquire. The fields are not prooflike like some others of this issue but frosty, while the devices are also well frosted. The Philadelphia Mint took extra care to produce really beautiful gold coins for their first year of issue, and this one was nice enough to be saved for over 210 years! Very well struck by the dies, with no adjustment marks whatsoever, the only weakness we can find in the design is atop the eagle's breast (a usual high point that often fails to show all of the fine feathers). We do note minor hairlines from handling but the coin remains very eye appealing. PCGS has graded only a couple of dozen this high of the date. A solid coin for the grade, and worthy of a strong bid. Pop 29; 18 finer (PCGS # 8066) .
The BD-10 variety is a fairly available coin featuring the 1795 Small Eagle pairing, since this is the only use of this reverse, it must have incurred some damage, currently not reported by the Dannreuther reference, "so one can envision a coin with further cracking."
The only known obverse state with this combination has the obverse heavily lapped with most of the stars attenuated and the lowest curls next to star 1 quite thin. The L of LIBERTY appears to be slightly farther from the cap than on BD-9 (which shares the same obverse), and again the lapping thins letters, stars, hair, and other details.
Estimated Value $90,000 - 100,000.
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