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1797 HALF EAGLE, Large Eagle
 
1797 Half Eagle - A rare and underrated issue, the 1797 half eagle ($5 gold piece) with the heraldic eagle or large eagle reverse is seldom available in any grade. While the known pieces were struck from a total of three die pairs, two of these die pairs only have single coins that represent them. The final variety, which is the only one which is available to collectors, has an estimated 16-20 known. As both unique varieties are permanently impounded in the Smithsonian collection that number is the total supply of 1797 half eagles available to collectors. As such, this is a very rare issue that is often overlooked by the more storied coins of the same era, like the 1795 large eagle and 1798 small eagle $5 gold pieces. Unknown to most collectors is that the unique varieties are both normal 1797 dates, whereas the “common” variety was overdated from an unused 1795 die and thus is correctly identified as 1797/5. The overdate is extremely sharp on the known pieces, and can be readily identified even without magnification.

It is very well possible that the majority, if not all of the coinage of 1797 heraldic eagle pieces actually occurred in early or even late 1798. During September and October of 1797, the Philadelphia Mint was closed due to a yellow fever epidemic in the city not to reopen until early November. A few months earlier the small eagle reverse design had been changed to a heraldic eagle, but when exactly this happened remains unclear. It is known that one of the unique varieties were struck before the final 1795 dated coins had been struck, and this could have very well been during the last two months of 1798. The Mint delivered large quantities of $5 gold pieces during 1798, and of the total mintage struck during the calendar year it has been estimated that between 530 and 1,150 were dated 1797. This is an extremely small number for a year in which a total of 24,867 half eagles were struck. Walter Breen suggested that the total 1797 mintage might have been included in the final delivery of the year, which totaled 3,226 pieces delivered on December 5th.

Because most people do not collect these fascinating gold coins by date, let alone by mintmark, this issue goes largely unnoticed. It is not the first, nor the last of the type, and in fact it is not the rarest date in the series. As a result, even the major researchers have only noticed the varieties for this date and have not done specific research to the circumstances that led to the creation of this, and similar half eagles of the same era. While the scenario seems highly unlikely it might be possible that a document is discovered with a specific listing of all dies which were used for coinage and specific deliveries during the late 19th century. Unfortunately, such a document has never been found over the last 200 years, and thus we have to do our research on the known sources and come up with our own (possible incorrect) conclusions.

As can be guessed from the extremely limited number of pieces known auction appearances are very sparse. In fact, some major auction companies which have been selling coins for decades have not sold a single example of this variety in recent years. Only one Mint State piece has been confirmed to exist, and while another has been graded as “uncirculated with cabinet friction” it in fact is an About Uncirculated coin. That is the grade in which this issue is usually found, together with Extremely Fine coins. Similar to other early gold coins lower grades are rare or non-existent, and cleaned and damaged pieces are usually around. Because of the rarity of this date, however, that is not the case and every offering should be considered with great care.

 

We at U.S. Rare Coin Investments highly recommend these 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.

 

USRCI is buying and selling Early Half Ealges

CLICK HERE to see our Inventory

 



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1797 Half Eagle - Information about 1797 Half Eagle

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