1798 $5 Small Eagle, BD-1, R.7, AU53 PCGS....

Description

1798 Capped Bust Right Half Eagle, AU53
Small Eagle, BD-1
Famous Early U.S. Gold Rarity
Ex: Eliasberg-Bass

1798 $5 Small Eagle, BD-1, R.7, AU53 PCGS. Ex: Harry W. Bass, Jr. Collection. Bass-Dannreuther Die State a/c, with evidence of extensive lapping on the reverse. The 1798 Capped Bust Right half eagle, with the old Small Eagle reverse, is a premier rarity in the series, with a surviving population of only six or seven examples in all grades. Two of those coins are included in the National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonian Institution, forever out of reach of eager collectors. No Mint State examples are extant and the coin offered here is tied for second finest certified honors at PCGS (4/23). Public offerings of the 1798 Small Eagle half eagle are few and far between and Heritage Auctions is privileged to offer this impressive AU53 example of this sought-after early gold rarity in just its second auction appearance.

Striking the Coins
According to the 2024 Guide Book, a respectable mintage of 24,867 Capped Bust Right half eagles was accomplished in 1798. In Early U.S. Gold Coin Varieties, John Dannreuther and Harry Bass identify eight different die varieties for the date, seven with the new Heraldic Eagle design and a single variety with the Small Eagle reverse used in earlier years. This coin represents the rare BD-1 variety, the only 1798 variety to employ the Small Eagle motif on the reverse. Dannreuther notes it would be a mistake to consider the BD-1 just another rare variety in the series, as it is the only Capped Bust Right half eagle to exhibit 13 stars on the obverse and the Small Eagle design on the reverse. It should be collected as a completely separate one-year design type. The obverse die was used again to strike the BD-2 variety of 1798 and the reverse die had been used previously to produce the BD-8 variety of 1795. The reverse die needed extensive lapping to remove three years of rust and decay before it could be used to strike the 1798 BD-1 coins, and all examples seen exhibit some loss of detail on the reverse. Another feature common to all known examples is the circular die crack below the date that probably resulted from a deeper than usual guideline that was engraved to guide the engraver in placing the dentils.

Interestingly, many numismatists believe the 1798 Small Eagle half eagle was actually struck in 1797. The annual yellow fever epidemic caused the Philadelphia Mint to close for an extensive period in 1797, creating a stronger than usual demand for coinage late in the year. Walter Breen notes the Mint employed emergency measures to meet this demand and struck coins "from any dies that might hold together, even briefly in the hasty days following the Mint's reopening." If the 1798 obverse dies were already prepared, the 1798 Small Eagle half eagles might have been included in the 3,226 coins delivered on December 5, 1797. Otherwise, they were probably part of the 691 pieces of Warrant 100 delivered on January 4, 1798. Craig Sholley has determined that the Mint owned four coin presses in 1798, but they only employed enough skilled pressmen to operate two presses at the same time, making really large mintages in a short period of time impossible. John Dannreuther estimates the BD-1 dies were used to strike only 300-600 examples of the 1798 Small Eagle half eagle.

The 1798 Small Eagle Half Eagle in the 19th Century
Many of the more subtle early U.S. gold varieties were only recognized much later, when the study of die varieties became widely established, but the 1798 Capped Bust Right, Small Eagle half eagle was recognized by collectors from the earliest days of the hobby. Pioneer collector Joseph Mickley owned an example at an early date, but the U.S. gold portion of his collection was sold privately, with little fanfare, and few numismatists were aware of this piece until later. The issue began appearing at auction as early as lot 2752 of the Sixth Semi-Annual Sale (W. Elliott Woodward, 3/1865), where the cataloger noted:

"1798 Small eagle reverse; in very good condition, only a little circulated. I have never heard of another of this variety, and believe this to be as rare as any coin in the American Gold series, not excepting the half eagle of 1815."

Contemporary collectors appreciated the rarity of the coin in this initial offering and the lot realized $125, an extraordinary price at the time, and was sold to Massachusetts coin dealer William Strobridge.

Cambridgeport, Massachusetts collector George F. Seavey exhibited an example of the 1798 Small Eagle five dollar, along with the rest of his remarkable gold collection, at the February 4, 1869 meeting of the Boston Numismatic Society and an account of that exhibition was reported in the April 1869 edition of the American Journal of Numismatics, spreading the word of the variety throughout the numismatic community. This coin later passed to Boston super collector Lorin G. Parmelee, when he purchased Seavey's entire collection in 1873. The 1798 Small Eagle five dollar appeared in five more auctions by the turn of the century, with a few of the specimens offered more than once (see roster below for details). By 1888, the cataloger of the Reverend Foster Ely Collection (Scott Stamp & Coin, 11/1888) reported that he knew of four examples of this early gold rarity and the Mint Cabinet acquired the former Seavey/Parmelee example in 1890, making it available for public viewing for the first time.

The 1798 Small Eagle Five Dollar in Later Times
Collector enthusiasm for early half eagles remained strong in the early 20th century and the 1798 Small Eagle five
realized extremely high prices in its rare auction appearances during this era. The coin in lot 2339 of the George Earle Collection (Henry Chapman, 6/1912) realized a staggering price of $3,000, the highest price ever realized by any early U.S. gold coin at the time. Ten years later, the James Ten Eyck specimen brought $5,250 when it was offered in B. Max Mehl's May 1922 auction, another landmark price.

However, collector interest shifted to large denomination gold coins after the Gold Recall of 1933 took effect. Savvy numismatists, like Dr. Charles W. Green and Louis Eliasberg, realized that collecting large denomination gold coins, especially double eagles, was one of the few legal options for U.S. citizens to invest in gold in quantity. By that time, most examples of the 1798 Small Eagle five dollar were tightly held in long term collections. Only two auction appearances are known for the 1798 Small Eagle five dollar in the two decades between 1930 and 1950, keeping the issue out of the public eye for most of this period. Coupled with the shift in collector interest to eagles and double eagles, the lack of public offerings caused the 1798 Small Eagle five to fade into obscurity. A flurry of auction appearances in the 1950s and the emergence of two multigenerational family collections around 1980 revived some of the earlier interest, but the enigmatic 1798 Small Eagle five dollar remains an overlooked and underappreciated issue down to the present day. Ironically, the extreme rarity of the issue has created an out-of-sight, out-of-mind effect, largely restricting knowledge of the issue to series specialists.

A dilemma has recently arisen concerning the number of survivors of this classic rarity. The Earle-Atwater example seems to have vanished after its last auction appearance in 1946. It is unusual for such a coin, with an established record of high value and collector demand, to just disappear into the woodwork for more than 75 years. The situation is further complicated by John Dannreuther's discovery of another example of the 1798 Small Eagle half eagle in 1996. Some authorities, including the 2024 Guide Book, believe these two specimens are actually the same coin, reducing the surviving population to a mere six pieces. Other experts understand the desire to connect the provenance of these two pieces, but cannot reconcile some differences that appear in the plates of these examples. In the absence of expert consensus, we have listed the two examples separately in our roster below, but we suspect the last word on this subject has yet to be heard.

The Present Coin
Fort Worth coin dealer B. Max Mehl discovered this coin in 1924 and sold it to prominent collector John H. Clapp for $5,250, the same price realized by the James Ten Eyck coin two years before. Clapp retained the coin, along with the rest of his collection, until his death in 1940. His estate sold the entire collection to Baltimore collector Louis E. Eliasberg, Sr. in 1942, for the astounding price of $100,000. Thanks in large part to his acquisition of the Clapp holdings, Eliasberg became the only collector to ever complete a collection of United States coins by date, mintmark, and major variety. Like Clapp, Eliasberg retained his collection until his death in 1976. His heirs sold the U.S. gold portion of the collection in a blockbuster auction by Bowers and Merena in October 1982. The 1798 Small Eagle five dollar was given a full-page lot description and described as, "One of the rarest and most famous of all early American gold coinage." The lot realized a strong price of $77,000, to early gold specialist Harry W. Bass, Jr. It has been off the market ever since. As part of the Harry Bass Core Collection, this coin was exhibited at the Edward E. Rochette Money Museum at ANA headquarters in Colorado Springs until 2022.

Physical Description
This coin is either the second or third finest survivor of this extremely rare early gold issue. With only four or five specimens in private hands, there has been only one public offering of a 1798 Small Eagle five in the last 20 years. Clearly, this lot represents an important opportunity for the advanced collector or Registry Set enthusiast.

This impressive AU53 specimen exhibits pleasing orange-gold surfaces, with the expected number of minor abrasions for the grade. Traces of original mint luster remain vibrant in sheltered areas. The diagnostic die crack/guideline is plainly visible below the date. Only minor wear is evident on the strongly impressed design elements, but some loss of detail shows on the reverse, especially on the leaves at the top of the wreath and the upper-right serif of the I in AMERICA, due to lapping. Like several other examples of this issue, the obverse exhibits many parallel planchet adjustment marks in the fields. The overall presentation is quite attractive. This coin possesses a combination of absolute rarity, high technical quality and an illustrious pedigree. It has been off the market for more than 40 years and it may be decades before a comparable specimen becomes available. The discerning collector should bid accordingly. This coin is pictured on PCGS CoinFacts and is the plate coin for David Akers' United States Gold Coins, An Analysis of Auction Records, Volume IV: Half Eagles, Q. David Bowers' Harry W. Bass, Jr. Museum Sylloge, John Dannreuther's Early U.S. Gold Coin Varieties, and Robert Miller's United States Half Eagle Gold Coins 1795-1834. The 1798 Small Eagle half eagle is listed among the 100 Greatest U.S. Coins. Population: 2 in 53, 1 finer (4/23).

Roster of 1798 Capped Bust Right Half Eagles, Small Eagle, BD-1, R.7
This roster was expanded from an earlier work by John Dannreuther, Ron Guth of the Numismatic Detective Agency, Saul Teichman, and David Stone.
1. AU55 PCGS. Raymond Caldwell (Lancaster, Pennsylvania), mentioned in Caldwell's article in the April 1935 issue of The Numismatist; Col. James W. Flanagan Collection (Stack's, 3/1944), lot 1063, an annotated copy of the Flanagan catalog indicates a collector named "Tanner" was the winning bidder, at $5,000; Clifford T. Weihman (possibly the real identity of "Tanner"); Stack's, sold privately after 1946; King Farouk; The Palace Collections of Egypt (Sotheby's, 2/1954), lot 229; Paul Wittlin, per Gaston DiBello's annotated copy of the catalog and Abe Kosoff's article in the 11/2/1977 edition of Coin World; William G. Baldenhofer; Farish Baldenhofer Collection (Stack's, 1/1955), lot 1203, realized $6,000; John H. Murrell Collection; Goliad Corporation (Mike Brownlee), sold privately in 8/1979; D. Brent Pogue Collection, Part II (Stack's Bowers & Sotheby's, 9/2015), lot 2074, realized $1,175,000.
Note: Some numismatists have attributed this coin to the James A. Stack Collection, but it is doubtful that Stack ever owned this coin.
2. AU53 PCGS. B. Max Mehl, sold privately in 1924 for $5,250 to John H. Clapp; Clapp Collection, sold intact via Stack's in 1942; Louis E. Eliasberg, Sr.; Eliasberg Estate; United States Gold Coin Collection (Bowers and Ruddy, 10/1982), lot 330, realized $77,000; Harry W. Bass, Jr.; Harry Bass Core Collection (HBCC# 3049). The present coin.
3. AU53 PCGS. Joseph J. Mickley Collection; W. Elliot Woodward; William Sumner Appleton, via Woodward in 1867; John C. Schayer; Woodward again; purchased by T. Harrison Garrett in January 1883 for $100; Robert and John Work Garrett, after T. Harrison Garrett's death in 1888; John Work Garrett bought out or traded for his brother's interest in the collection, circa 1919; Johns Hopkins University, by bequest in 1942; Garrett Collection, Part I (Bowers and Ruddy, 11/1979), lot 437, realized $110,000; Auction '83 (Paramount, 7/1983), lot 367, realized $71,500; Kevin Lipton; Mid-American Rare Coin Galleries, sold privately to a mystery buyer; St. Jude Collection (via Jay Parrino). In the January 2022 issue of Coin World, Vicken Yegparian recounted how this coin reappeared in 2016 and was later sold to the St. Jude Collection through Jay Parrino for a figure in excess of the $1,175,000 price realized by the Pogue coin in 2015.
4. XF40 PCGS. Southern family; discovered in July 1996 by John Dannreuther in a Southern coin shop; JDRC Inc. and partner; split with Ken Goldman at the 1996 ANA convention; Anthony Terranova, sold privately; Dr. Gene Sherman Collection (via Anthony Terranova); Dr. Jon Kardatzke (via Anthony Terranova and Dave Liljestrand in April 1998); consigned by Kardatzke to the following; Dr. Richard Ariagno Collection (Goldberg Auctions, 5/1999), lot 710, bought in by the consignor; Dr. Jon Kardatzke Collection (Goldberg Auctions, 6/2000), lot 1290, realized $264,500.
5. XF -- Damaged -- Uncertified (grade per Jeff Garrett). John Colvin Randall Collection (W. Elliot Woodward, 6/1885), lot 877, probably bought in; Randall Collection, Part II (W. Elliot Woodward, 9/1885), lot 1000, the reverse plate is an easy match to the Ten Eyck coin (see next); James Ten Eyck Collection (B. Max Mehl, 5/1922), lot 166, realized $5,250, plate matched to Mehl's Newcomer plates (see next); Waldo C. Newcomer Collection (inventory #28, showing a cost of $5,250); B. Max Mehl, sold privately circa 1932; "Colonel" E.H.R. Green Collection; Davis-Graves Collection (Stack's, 4/1954), lot 1418, realized $7,000; C.T. Weihman Collection; Josiah K. Lilly Collection; donated to the National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonian Institution in 1967.
6. Very Fine Uncertified (estimated grade). George F. Seavey, exhibited at the February 4, 1869 meeting of the Boston Numismatic Society; Seavey Descriptive Catalog (William Strobridge, 6/1873), lot 286; Lorin G. Parmelee, who purchased Seavey's entire collection before the public auction was scheduled to take place; Lorin G. Parmelee Collection (New York Coin & Stamp Co., 6/1890), lot 758; George D. Woodside, acting as agent for the Mint Cabinet; Mint Cabinet, acquisition date June 28, 1890, listed in T.L. Comparette's catalog of the Mint's collection in 1912; National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonian Institution.
7. Fine Uncertified. John Butler, a Burlington, New Jersey druggist, circa 1900, sold upon his death by his son to George H. Earle, Jr.; George H. Earle, Jr. Collection (Henry Chapman, 6/1912), lot 2339, realized $3,000; Col. James W. Ellsworth Collection, sold privately in 1923; Wayte Raymond; William Cutler Atwater Collection (B. Max Mehl, 6/1946), lot 1612. This example has been claimed, with varying degrees of certainty, to be the Kardatzke coin (#4 above).

Additional Appearances:
A. The discovery specimen appeared in the Sixth Semi-Annual Sale (W. Elliot Woodward, 3/1865), lot 2752, realize $125 to William Strobridge. This coin may be the same as number 6 above, as Strobridge and Seavey were very close and did much business together in the 1860s.
B. Historical Collection (H.P. Smith, 3/1883), lot 1005.
C. Reverend Foster Ely Collection (Scott Stamp and Coin Company, 11/1888), lot 17, realized $51; James Vila Dexter. Both Raymond Caldwell and Walter Breen believed this was the Ten-Eyck/Davis-Graves coin, number 5 above.
D. A second example in "Colonel" E.H.R. Green's collection; Green Estate in 1936. Lot 79 of Highlights From the Stack Family Library (George Frederick Kolbe, 9/2010) lists many records from Stack's sale of "Colonel" Green's gold coin collection to various parties in the mid-1940s. Among the notes in the five dollar inventory was the following, "Two of the seven known 1798 Small Eagles were in the collection." We have only been able to confirm one "Colonel" Green 1798 Small Eagle five dollar in the roster above. It is possible that coin number 1 is the other example, as it matches the coin in Stack's "Colonel" Green plates, but that is not certain, since Stack's used the Green plates for stock photos in several auctions during this time period.

Coin Index Numbers: (Variety PCGS# 507321, Base PCGS# 8071)

Weight: 8.75 grams

Metal: 91.67% Gold, 8.33% Copper

Note for clients in the European Union: This lot is considered by the European Union to be “investment gold”. We believe that it meets the criteria established in Article 344(1), point (2) of Council Directive 2006/112/EC and thus should be exempt from import VAT regardless of the selling price. Any questions or concerns about VAT should be addressed to your accountant or local tax authority.

View Certification Details from PCGS