1833 $5 Small Date MS(PCGS#8158)

Summer 2025 Global Showcase Auction U.S. Coins

Auktionator

Stack's Bowers

Losnummer

2018

Erhaltungsgrad

MS65

Preis

192.000

Losbeschreibung

BD Die State a/e. A simply remarkable specimen of this great rarity. Superb medium yellow gold color with subtle olive undertones in the fields and copper-rose highlights clinging to left obverse periphery and a portion of the reverse periphery. Smooth and resplendent with satiny luster, a bit reflective inside the shield lines and areas of the reverse motto where the die was polished. The devices are frosty and very well defined everywhere but at stars 1 and 13; these bottom two stars seem to be directly opposite the high relief wing tips and have been on the losing end in a battle of metal flow. The eye appeal is outstanding, just beautiful. There are some light scattered marks, like a thin horizontal scrape low on Liberty's cheek and a pinpoint nick above star 9, reverse nick below the letters AM in AMERICA, but none of these are serious, as the assigned grade confirms. A stripe of toning from the point of the bust into the left obverse field reflects the originality of this coin and serves as an identifier for provenance purposes.<p>The two varieties of 1833 half eagles, differentiated by the width and arrangement of the date, were likely discovered by J. Colvin Randall, the pioneering Philadelphia numismatist who was the first scholar to seriously study the die varieties of early United States gold and silver coins. He owned both varieties, described as "Broad Date" and "Close Date" in the June 1885 sale of his collection by W. Elliot Woodward.<p>In late 1832, Congress ramped up discussions about the problems confronting United States gold coinage. The mines of Georgia and the Carolinas continued to yield gold in abundance, but most was exported soon after it was unearthed. A bill was introduced in the House of Representatives in December 1832 to open branch assay offices "in the gold districts of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Virginia," but as debate on the bill reached the House floor, Congressmen like Erastus Root of New York recognized that unless the legally defined relationship between the value of gold and silver was remedied, gold "is worth far more for exportation...it will never come to your Mint unless its true value is paid." The bill to found Southern assay offices died in April 1833, but the issues that inspired it were remedied legislatively in 1834, when the ratio of gold and silver was corrected, and in 1835 action was taken to establish branch mints, creating the facilities at Charlotte and Dahlonega (in the gold regions), and at New Orleans.<p>The 1833 Small Date, sometimes called the Close Date, is marginally rarer than its Large Date or Wide Date counterpart. Any 1833 half eagle is highly elusive in such elevated grade as found here. In fact, this is one of the two finest 1833 half eagles of all varieties certified by PCGS. It is finer than the D. Brent Pogue specimen of the 1833 BD-2 dies, a PCGS MS-64+ that sold in our May 2016 Pogue IV Sale.