1909-D $5 Indian Head Half Eagle NGC MS65

This offering is an example of dignified beauty. NGC has awarded the gem grade of MS65 to 97 specimens, with a mere 5 finer. Gold specialist David Akers tells us, "The 1909-D is usually well struck (as are most Denver Mint gold coins) and they are seen both satiny (uncommon) and with a 'soft' frosty finish. The lustre for this issue is good to very good....Color is wide ranging from coppery gold to greenish gold to bright yellow."          

Bela Lyon Pratt, the artist-engraver who crafted the beautiful design upon this series.

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."