1805 $5 MS(PCGS#8088)

Summer 2025 Global Showcase Auction U.S. Coins

Auktionator

Stack's Bowers

Losnummer

3172

Erhaltungsgrad

MS62

Preis

28.800

Losbeschreibung

This lovely example blends warm golden-honey color and softly frosted luster on impressively smooth surfaces. Indeed, there is not much here precluding a Choice Mint State grade, as even the few wispy obverse handling marks are easily overlooked and hardly distracting. A sharply rendered and crisp strike enhances the desirability of this thoroughly PQ early half eagle. BD Die State a/a.<p>The output of the 33,183 half eagles coined at Philadelphia dated 1805 was achieved through four obverse dies and two reverse dies in a total of five known combinations. The obverse of the Bass-Dannreuther 1 die marriage is easily identified by having a complete bottom left serif in the digit 1 in the date; a broken punch was used for the second obverse. The reverse is discernible by carefully observing that one of the two rightmost leaves in the branch in the eagle's left talon just touches the extreme left corner of the letter I in AMERICA, and the letters IT in UNITED are closely spaced. The BD-1 die pair proved to be among the more resilient for this issue, lasting for an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 impressions before the reverse die eventually failed with a massive cud covering most of the tops of the letters UNIT in UNITED (BD Die State c/c).<p>While almost all early gold half eagles are rare due to the mass meltings of the 1820s and 1830s, this is one of the more available varieties even in Mint State. John W. Dannreuther (2006) estimates that approximately 175 to 225 examples of the BD-1 pairing survive, likely accounting for a little more than half the total number of 1805 half eagles thought to remain. Attractive in every regard, the present specimen would be just right for a high grade type set or another specialized early gold collection.