The Half Eagle was the
very first gold coin struck at the United States mint. Starting
in 1795, the Half Eagle became the only U.S gold coin struck
in each of the 8 U.S mints may or varieties exist in the early
series with several appearing for sale very infrequently, sometimes
not being seen for years.
The Small Eagle design
Half Eagle by Scot, was one of the first acts that the then
new mint director Henry William DeSaussure had proclaimed (one
of 2, first to place gold coins in circulation, and second to
improve an coin designs in general). The series ran for only
a short terms 1795 thru 1798 with 1798 being a major variety
commanding multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars in better
status of preservation.
A serious prize for specialists
as well as investors of items of great historical importance,
these Early Half Eagles have captured the imagination of collectors
since they were first made.
They are all scarce
to extremely rare and a symbol of the beginning of the United
States via its coinage and coined art.
Only seven
examples are known of this exceedingly rare variety, the finest
being a single AU-55 coin from the Farouk collection. The
reverse was a definite holdover from previous years, having
seen service for one of the 1795 varieties. The reuse of the
reverse in 1798 Half Eagle has been attributed to an emergency
created by a yellow-fever epidemic that year, but it may have
been simply an economic necessity due to the high cost of
dies. All examples have an arclike die crack or flaw beneath
the date. Since 1991, only one example (a PCGS EF-40) has
appeared at auction-first in 1999, when it was bought back
by the consignor for $275,000; and again in 2000, when it
sold for $264,500. Note: this coin is included among the 100
Greatest U.S. Coins (Garrett and Guth 2005).
We at U.S. Rare Coin
Investments highly recommend these Early Half Eagle coins
for investments portfolios. Whether a single coin or the long
term acquisition of them with the goal of building a set in
terms of historical importances as well as longterm profit
potential, cannot be overstated in our opinion.
