1797 $5 Small Eagle, 15 Stars MS(PCGS#8069)

Summer 2025 Global Showcase Auction U.S. Coins

Auctioneer

Stack's Bowers

Lot Number

3288

Grade

AU58

Price

210,000

Lot Description

Splashes of pale copper toning grace lustrous medium yellow gold surfaces, retaining peeks of reflective surface around design elements amidst thorough cartwheel luster on both sides. The visual appeal of this coin matches its elite rarity, placing this exquisite property in august company indeed. The strike is well centered and complete, and both sides are remarkably free of the kinds of defects that force numismatic catalogers to earn their keep with creative apologies. Scattered hairlines are seen, typical of the grade, and a shallow abrasion under the letter D in UNITED would be overlooked by most, but no heavy marks or other problems. Two short natural lint marks are seen in the right obverse field adjacent to Liberty's lips, and another angles to the rim above the first letter A in AMERICA. The die state is typical of this die marriage, with cracks of sufficient violence that it's easy to see why this coin is so rare. On the obverse, a heavy crack starts at the rim and extends down through Liberty's cap to the tresses that parallel her temple. Another threatens to bisect the reverse, spanning the length of the letter I in UNITED to the body of the eagle and then across the area beneath the right wing.<p>A 1797 half eagle is a rare coin, but it's particularly rare so fine. The only finer example of this variety certified by PCGS is the MS-61 Pogue coin, which brought $258,500 in our Pogue II sale of September 2015. With an estimated mintage of 3,609 pieces, the 1797 Small Eagle $5 saw lower production totals than either of the half eagle issues that preceded it from 1795 and 1796. Four die varieties are known of this date with a Small Eagle reverse. All are rare, with the population of surviving BD-3 coins nearly equal to the total of the other three die marriages combined. It's interesting that the collection of Lorin G. Parmelee, whose quest for completeness included the en bloc purchase of the "complete" gold coin collection of George A. Seavey, did not include a 1797 15 Stars Small Eagle $5. Nor did the extraordinary half eagle collection assembled by Ted Naftzger. The famously complete Harry W. Bass, Jr. Collection included two specimens of this rarity: this one and an example that was retained by the Harry W. Bass, Jr. Foundation until its sale in September 2022. That example, earlier from the Clapp and Eliasberg collections, was graded AU Details--Repaired by PCGS, leaving no doubt which is the superior coin. The next best example from these dies sold in living memory was a PCGS AU-53 example sold by Heritage in January 2014. Another AU-53, graded by NGC and not as nice as the PCGS-certified example mentioned, brought $117,000 in Heritage's sale of August 2023; though not cataloged as such, that coin was the H.P. Smith (Henry and S.H. Chapman, May 1906) specimen if you're keeping score at home. None of these have sold since 2023 in any venue or grade.<p>Advanced collectors have long understood that all 1797 half eagles are elusive and that each of the two major types of Small Eagle coins of that date - 15 Stars and 16 Stars - are distinctive rarities in their own right. Edward Cogan's 1875 catalog of the famous Mendes I. Cohen cabinet is instructive. Born in 1796 into a major banking family, Cohen had more access to fresh gold coins than most. He owned three 1797 half eagles: a 1797/5 Heraldic Eagle that brought $10.50, a 1797 Small Eagle with 16 Stars that brought $7, and a 1797 Small Eagle with 15 Stars that brought $8.<p>It will surprise no one that a coin of this essential rarity and superb quality will have an august provenance. This was one of the first examples of this variety to catch the attention of Walter Breen, and its appearance in the 1945 Stack's sale of the Hall Collection is mentioned in his half eagle monograph. Sold to King Farouk of Egypt for his extraordinary and sprawling collection, it was auctioned in 1954 after he was deposed and quickly found a home in the collection of Mrs. Emery May Norweb, where it remained for three decades. Harry Bass owned it for the next 20 years, and it's sold just once since the Bass Collection was dispersed 25 years ago. The last time a firm other than ours sold this coin at public sale, Abe Kosoff was wearing spats to an auction in Egypt.