1800 $5 Draped Bust Half Eagle, BD-2 PCGS (CAC)

Formerly sold for $25,200 in the Stacks Bowers Spring 2022 Spring Auction Rarities Night, featuring the collections of Andrew M. Hain, Huberman & Pieper, lot 3129. This is an OUTSTANDING early gold specimen and should be seriously considered.

As lot #3129, it was described as:

Noteworthy Near-Mint 1800 Half Eagle 1800 Capped Bust Right Half Eagle. BD-2. Rarity-3+. Blunt 1. AU-58+ (PCGS). CAC.

Just a whisper away from Mint State, this premium quality example will please even the most discerning early gold enthusiasts. It is a near-fully lustrous coin that retains much of the satin to modestly semi-reflective finish. Exceptionally well preserved, we note light olive overtones to dominant medium gold color, the surfaces retaining their original "skin." Boldly to sharply struck and free of troublesome blemishes, only the strongest bids will be competitive when bidding open for this lot. BD Die State c/e.

The Blunt 1 variety of the 1800-dated half eagle issue was produced with a single obverse die but four different reverse dies. Mintage figures are not precise for this issue. It is believed that somewhere between 15,000 and 30,000 half eagles were struck bearing the 1800 date. Of these, approximately 7,500 to 12,500 were produced using the BD-2 die pair. Even though the extensive meltings of the 1820s and 1830s thinned out the numbers dramatically, this is one of the more available of the early Capped Bust Right half eagles and is sometimes regarded as a type coin, although by no definition can early U.S. gold coinage be considered common. In fact, no more than 250 examples are thought extant for this variety, and premium About Uncirculated examples such as this enjoy particularly strong demand among knowledgeable collectors.

The reverse die state from which this coin was struck is unlisted in the 2006 Bass-Dannreuther reference on U.S. gold coin varieties. Retained cud breaks are evident at the tops of the letters IT in UNITED and MER in AMERICA, with another crack between the words STATES and OF, die rust lumps at the right base of the F in OF and on the upright of the I in AMERICA.

Provenance: From the Andrew M. Hain Collection.