1803/2 $5 MS(PCGS#8084)

Summer 2025 Global Showcase Auction U.S. Coins

Auctioneer

Stack's Bowers

Lot Number

3167

Grade

AU58

Price

20,400

Lot Description

This handsome piece displays warm, even honey-olive color on surfaces that retain nearly complete frosty mint luster. Pleasing reflectivity in the fields enhances the eye appeal. Expertly produced and sharply defined in most areas, only faint handling marks and a touch of friction preclude a Mint State grade for this premium quality example. BD Die State a/b.<p>The half eagles of the 1803 production year expose a curious oversight at the early U.S. Mint in that all known varieties are overdates. This on its own is unremarkable, but in context of the previous overdate-only issue of 1802, a chronic miscalculation or miscommunication is made apparent. The mystery began when at least two dies were created for the 1801 half eagle but, for an unknown reason, these went unused and no 1801-dated coins were struck. The Mint then repunched the date on these otherwise suitable dies and employed them to strike approximately 53,176 coins of the 1802/1 issue. Then once again, at least two new, though seemingly redundant, dies dated 1802 were manufactured and went unused, only to be repunched with a 3 digit and used for the 1803/2 issue.<p>The obverse die used on the 1803/2 BD-1, BD-2 and BD-3 varieties is readily discernible by the broken/missing right serif on the foot of the letter T in LIBERTY. In the BD-1 pairing, offered here, this obverse is matched with a reverse used in the BD-7 pair from the previous year. The mintage for the 1803-dated half eagle issue is approximately 32,506 pieces, with the BD-1 pair the most available of the four known varieties (edging out the BD-3 and BD-4 by a slim margin). Even so, there are only an estimated 150 to 200 coins believed extant in any degree of preservation; such is the state of early gold that even with so comparatively few survivors this is considered a common variety. Long popular among advanced type collectors as well as early half eagle specialists, this pleasing Choice AU example should not be overlooked.