1802/1 Half Eagle (1802/1 $5) Mint Error NGC AU. This coin is an 1802/1 $5 half eagle encased in a NGC holder denoted with AU Details. This coin features a mint error of being triple struck as well as exhibiting an obverse rotation. This coin is 1 of 2 known early $5 half eagles to exhibit such an error. As well as the aforementioned errors, this coin features an obverse rim that is filed. This is a truly historic coin that is only made better with the Mint errors that it exhibits !

The first gold coins produced by the United States were the Half Eagles of 1795. Chief Engraver Robert Scot designed the first half eagles and there design featured a portrait of Liberty in a soft cap, and the reverse, adapted from an ancient Roman cameo, depicted a naturalistic small eagle perched on a simple branch. The small eagle, however, proved immediately unpopular, being characterized by many as "scrawny."

Scot set out to design a coin that would appeal to all of the critics as well as improve the look of the coin. His resulting design, the Heraldic Eagle, was based on the bird gracing the Great Seal of the United States. The eagle design is referred to as the Heraldic Eagle because the eagle used on the reverse of the Half Eagle was based on the Great Seal of the United States. Scot's version combined a chicken-like head with a body wide enough to hold the thirteen-stripe shield. The upraised wings are thin, partly covered by a flowing scroll inscribed E PLURIBUS UNUM. Clouds overhead frame thirteen to sixteen stars symbolizing the original states and three new ones formed after independence. Scot blundered in one respect, however, apparently forgetting that directions are reversed in heraldry, which regards the eagle as if it were a person facing the viewer. The eagle's right or "dexter" side is therefore the viewer's left or "sinister" side. Thirteen arrows are in the eagle's right claw, an omen of war.

As many as 300,000 Heraldic Eagle $5 gold pieces were struck at the Philadelphia Mint between 1798 and 1807, although the lack of precision in early Mint records makes this total an estimate rather than a concrete fact. No proofs exist, though the softness and ductility of gold coupled with Mint attention to detail did create some extraordinary "presentation" coins of uncertain purpose.

In the early years of the US Mint, steel to make dies was scarce and funds were scarcer. The Mint operated on a shoestring budget and if any dies were leftover at the end of the year, there was good reason to reuse them. There are many overdates from the 1790’s and early 1800’s and many were probably caused by economic reasons.