1807 Half Eagle (1807 $5 Bust Left) Bust Left, PCGS MS63. Early Half Eagle. Eye appealing luster drips from this lovely Early 1807 Half Eagle. The coin has clean fields with virtually no contact marks observable. The strike is full and sharp on both sides. We see every detail of each device including all of Liberty’s curls and every feather on the eagle and line in the shield. Light clash marks are seen on the obverse, which do not detract from the coin’s eye appeal or grade. 1807 is the first year of this issue, which was designed by John Reich. He also used this design for the half dollar. Some of his contemporaries criticized the obverse because they said that Liberty looked like his “fat mistress.”
Liberty faces left, perhaps to the West, instead of right, to Europe as did its predecessor. In addition to looking left, Liberty wears a modified Phrygian cap. A true Phrygian cap or pilleus was shaped like half an eggshell. In ancient Rome it was worn by former slaves to symbolize emancipation and to conceal the closely cropped hair or shaved head, which marked slave status. In 1825 Mint Director Samuel Moore asked Thomas Jefferson if the cap was a suitable emblem. Jefferson responded that a liberty cap should not be worn by a goddess who herself represents liberty, after all we were never slaves. However, the device continued to be used on gold coinage until 1834.
A second change that Reich made was the addition of the denomination on the coin. Most previous precious metal coins did not include this information. They were valued by their weight and fineness, as were European coins, and thought of as bullion. Reich used “5 D.” for the denomination. He used the numeral and the abbreviation because lettering would have interfered with the olive branch leaves, and the design would have been much too crowded. He also “fixed” the mistakes made by Scott, his predecessor. The previous heraldic eagle had arrows and olive branch in the wrong claws, showing either very warlike symbolism or naïve confusion. Reich also removed the stars and clouds above the eagle and moved the banner with E PLURIBUS UNUM to arc above the eagle.
While serving as the Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson was also in charge of the Mint. In his travels to France, Jefferson learned about the various aspects of the minting process. In 1801, as president, he recommended that John Reich be hired as Engraver at the Mint. Reich was a skilled engraver who had sold himself into indentured servitude in order to finance his passage to the United States from Bavaria. While John Reich was unable to become the Engraver, he was hired for other duties and became Robert Scott’s assistant. Because Scott’s eyesight was failing, the new Mint Director, Robert Patterson assigned Reich to redesign the contemporary coinage. The first two were the half dollar and half eagle.
The original mintage of this coin was 51,605. From this number one might think that the coin is common; however, the grading services’ population reports show otherwise. The combined total for both services show 561 coins in all conditions, and this number does not account for resubmissions and crossovers. In its population report PCGS shows 37 in MS63 with 34 better.
