1796/5 Half Eagle NGC AU50 - 1796/5 $5 NGC AU50, Small Eagle, Breen-6418, BD-1, R4+. This attractive, rare overdate 1796/5 Half Eagle has some original mint luster within its well-centered devices. The lines of most of Libertys hair, drapery, and hat are complete and strong, as are some of the stars. The eagle shows some feathers on the neck, tail, and wings. The dentils are full and sharp on both sides. The surfaces are a mixture of pale orange and greenish-gold. The former is a result of an alloy mix. These colors indicate that the surfaces are completely untampered with and original. For the grade, they are clean with no abrasion marks or other distractions worthy of individual description. A few light reverse adjustment marks do not affect the grade or the coins eye-appeal. The overdate is obvious with the 5 clearly visible under the 6.

The Capped Bust, Small Eagle five dollar coin was designed by Robert Scot. The obverse shows a profile of 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 six-pointed 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 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 ways slaves were identified. Because of the way Libertys hair strands wrap around it, the oversized cap has been called a turban, and the design has been called the Turban Head.

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. Unfortunately, by the time the coin was issued, he had resigned his position as Mint Director. No denomination is indicated, and the edge is reeded.

Half eagle of 1795, 1797, and 1798 all have two types, the Small Eagle reverse and the Heraldic Eagle reverse. The 1796 half eagle is the only one with only a Small Eagle reverse. The first use of the reverse die was in 1795 with the BD-12 half eagle. Because the details were shallowly punched into the die, elements of the wreath seem hollow and disconnected from their neighbors. This lightness is seen on both varieties.

Thomas Jefferson chose Scot to be the first Chief Engraver of the United States Mint on November 23, 1793. Scot 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 in his advanced years he had 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 early silver coins and the Capped Bust gold coins. Scot also designed the 1794-1797 half-cent, the 1800-1808 draped bust half-cent, and the Thomas Jefferson Indian Peace Medal. He died on November 1, 1823 and was succeeded by William Kneass as Chief Engraver.
The early Mint in Philadelphia had many challenges. Conditions were poor even at times chaotic. Each of the specialists, the designers, engravers, and press operators were men who had previously worked in other fields. Coin manufacturing was a new trade for them. Production was sporadic. For the new Mint to coin each of the mandated denominations, it took four years. This delay was partly because of inexperience and governmental obstacles. Bonds that were unrealistically high were impediments to engravers working with precious metals. Congress was not united on the need for a government mint since private and foreign coinage seemed to work. Because of the non-existent or low production numbers in the early years of the Mint, foreign copper, silver and gold circulated along with American made coins for many years until they were later demonetized.

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. The Mint shut operations during the late summer and early fall every year. In addition to yellow fever, disorder at the Mint was also caused by chronic bullion shortages and coin dies that would wear out and had to be re-engraved because they were not taken out of production until they failed completely. Often dies were locked up and later taken out of storage without great attention and care. There was also a jealous Chief Engraver, Robert Scot, who was in his seventies and had failing eyesight.

The 1796/5 Half Eagle is a much underrated date considering its mintage. Both of the dies for this coin were left over from the previous year with the date changed. There are no other varieties since this is the only die pair that was used for the date. In its population report, NGC shows only the present coin at the AU50 grade level.