1799 $5 Draped Bust Half Eagle, Heraldic Eagle NGC MS63

A treasured rarity from our nation's early days. With a scant mintage of 7,451, there are an estimated 300-400 pieces surviving today. NGC has graded 88 specimens, with 6 that carry the grade of MS63 with only 3 finer.

Perhaps engraver Robert Scot took inspiration from women's fashion of his time for his obverse design.

Esteemed numismatic art critic Cornelius Vermeule writes of this historic obverse design: "The industrious Robert Scot ... created the bust of Liberty that dominated the gold coinage .... His source could well have been an idealized, somewhat backward portrait of Martha Washington arrayed for an evening reception .... The Liberty cap is a great tumultuous affair of soft felt that somehow manages to tower amid a large, curled forelock and long, wavy tresses .... The face is flat, blunt, and thoroughly bourgeois. The draped bust is a truncated curiosity. Greco-Roman classicism has been misunderstood here .... The entire presentation makes little sense as an immediate visual experience. Scot surely did not originate this form of classicism in the federalist period; no doubt he adapted the design from some cast after the antique or some contemporary marble by a sculptor of modest talents." Vermeule continues his analysis of this coin, pointing to criticism of Scot's work: "Criticism comes easy, however, and it must not be overlooked that Robert Scot's first gold coinage has a positive character of its own, a healthy individuality and almost rustic charm that conveys the message of a young nation seeking its identity as well as any monumental manifestation of the early arts in America."