1873 $5 Half Eagle, Judd-1341, Pollock-1485, R.8, PR65 Cameo PCGS....

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1873 Five Dollar, Struck in Aluminum
Judd-1341, PR65 Cameo

1873 $5 Half Eagle, Judd-1341, Pollock-1485, R.8, PR65 Cameo PCGS. Ex: Simpson. From the adopted dies for the Liberty half eagle. The design was also struck in copper (Judd-1340). USPatterns.com believes these off-metal pieces were struck for sale to collectors. Struck in aluminum with a reeded edge. Probably only three or four examples have survived, with an equal number known in copper. While today aluminum is a common and inexpensive metal, in the 19th century it was difficult to extract and it was more valuable than gold. In fact, the cap of the Washington monument is aluminum because of its rarity and value. Then the Hall-Héroult method of smelting in 1886 made aluminum an inexpensive commodity rather than a precious metal. One of aluminum's special properties in the manufacturing of patterns is its brightness and the ease with which it takes on thick mint frost over the devices; the result, of course, is the cameo effect, as seen on this piece.

Coin Index Numbers: (NGC ID# 2A9J, Variety PCGS# 389279, Base PCGS# 61629, Greysheet# 373476)

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