1795 Half Eagle - 1795 $5 Small Eagle NGC XF40. BD-3. This rare, early date 1795 Half Eagle has some remaining mint luster and nicely colored surfaces with shades of gold and orange-gold towards the rims. Despite a light scratch from Libertys front hair curl to star twelve, the surfaces are clean for the grade and original. Although lightly circulated, no adjustment marks are found on the coin. The strike is above average with strong details on Libertys hair, the eagles wings, and the dentils on both sides.

The Wide Date varieties have the first star below Libertys lowest curl with the L touching the cap. The Close Dates have the numbers crowded together with the first star left of the lowest curl and the L free of the cap. Several of the Close Date dies were used in subsequent years with the dates changed.

This Type 1 half eagle was made with a 15 star obverse. Others had 16 stars (11+5) and 13 stars (8+5). Mint officials finally realized that it was not practical to keep adding stars as each new state became a member of the Union. The Type 1, style 1 (15 stars) had a reverse with 1, 3 or 4 berries. When four were present, as on this piece, two were usually inside and two were outside the wreath. There are fifteen varieties of the 1795 half eagle.

The present coin is a BD-3 variety. The tip of the 5 in the date barely overlies the drapery. Star 1 is below and touches the curl. Star 11 is on top of the Y in LIBERTY and is connected to Star 12. This is the only 1795 dated half eagle with this feature. On the reverse, the leaf is connected to the U in UNITED. The next leaf touches the right bottom of the left foot of the N and extends past the center of the N. The upper leaf extends above the left foot of the I. In the wreath there are 4 berries, two on each side.

Robert Scot, the Mint Engraver, designed the coin. The obverse shows Liberty facing right. Below her is the date which is off center to the left. Between the date and the word LIBERTY on the left side of the coin are ten stars. Another five stars follow LIBERTY down to the bust. Liberty wears a large, soft cap. Her hair flows down and also shows on her forehead. The bust is strangely draped for a classical design, which was Scots goal. The design was probably taken from a Roman engraving of a Greek goddess. Libertys cap was certainly not a Phrygian or liberty cap. The liberty cap, emblematic of freedom, was worn by freed slaves and freed gladiators in Roman times. It was a close fitting cap used to cover a shorn head, which was one of the way slaves were identified. The oversized cap worn by Liberty has been called a turban, and the design has been called the Turban Head because of it. Scots Small Eagle reverse shows a skinny, unrealistic eagle standing on a palm branch. Its outstretched wings interrupt the legend, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Its head faces right. In its beak it holds a small laurel wreath. This motif, designed in 1795, was used on contemporary gold eagles as well. The palm branch is said to be an oblique reference to Mint Director DeSaussure, who came from Charleston, South Carolina.

Record keeping in the Mints early years was fairly inaccurate. At the end of the eighteenth century Philadelphia had recovered from the British occupation and Revolutionary War. It was the second largest city in the English-speaking world, but it could do nothing to protect its citizens from the mosquito-borne epidemic of yellow fever. Its wealthy citizens went to the countryside to escape, and the poor grimly waited their fate. Of course these annual epidemics caused havoc with all manufacturing that required continuity, such as a coinage sequence. In addition to yellow fever, chaos at the Mint was also caused by chronic bullion shortages, coin dies that would wear out and had to be re-engraved because they were not taken out of production until they failed completely, and a Chief Engraver, Robert Scot, who was in his seventies and had failing eyesight.

Thomas Jefferson chose Robert Scot to be the first Chief Engraver of the United States Mint on November 23, 1793. Scott was born in 1744 in Edinburgh, Scotland or England. (Documentary evidence is lacking as to where he was born.) He was trained as a watchmaker in England and learned engraving afterwards. He moved to the United States in 1777, where he worked as an engraver of plates, bills of exchange, and office scales. During the Revolution, he was an engraver of paper money. In 1780 he was made the State Engraver of Virginia. He moved to Philadelphia the next year. He was appointed Chief Engraver of the United States Mint on November 23, 1793 by David Rittenhouse, Mint Director. His salary in 1795 was $1,200 per year. The Mint Director received only $800 dollars per year more. Scots ability to make dies was limited, and he was advanced in years with failing eyesight. His work was somewhat less than that done in Europe at the time, and Scot was criticized for its poor quality. He was responsible for designs of most of Americas first coins. These include the Flowing Hair and the Draped Bust motifs used on the early silver coins, and the gold quarter eagle, half eagle and eagle. Scot also designed the 1794-1797 half cent, the 1800-1808 draped bust half cent, and the Thomas Jefferson Indian Peace Medal. Scot died on November 1, 1823 and was succeeded by William Kneass as Chief Engraver.

John Dannreuther (2006) estimates that there were 8,707 to 12,106 half eagles minted in 1795. He further estimated that 2,000 to 3,000 BD-3s were among them. With a high R3 rating, the surviving population of this variety is 175 to 225 pieces.