1908-S $5 Indian Head Half Eagle NGC MS61

This specimen from the inaugural year of the Indian Head half eagle is both rare and stunning. Its mintage of 82,000 makes it the third lowest of the entire series.

Examples from the first year of this series are greatly desired by collectors. The 1908-S is known for strong, brilliant strikes. NGC has graded 64 pieces as MS61 with 178 finer. Collectors Universe gives this issue a price of $9,000.00 in MS61.

Artist-medalist Bela Lyon Pratt, who crafted this unique and beautiful coin design, in a 1918 painting by Howard E. Smith. Image: Wikimedia Commons.

Noted numismatic scholar and art critic Cornelius Vermeule writes, "Bela Lyon Pratt of Boston presented a novel coin.... an Indian brave in war bonnet adorns the obverse, and [a] Ptolemaic eagle with wings closed walks along on the reverse...The innovations [on this coin] was one of technique as much as design. Instead of being modeled in relief within a protecting rim, the Indian, the eagle, and the lettering were sunken in incuse or engraved in the uniformly flat plane of the coin .... the [coin shows] more imagination and daring of design than almost any other issue in American history."