1798 Half Eagle - 1798 $5 Large 8 13 Stars NGC AU55. BD-4. Traces of muted, original mint luster remain in protected areas of this eye-appealing 1798 half eagle. The strike is variable with full details on the upper shield and most of the eagles wings. Dentils are present on both sides and stronger on the reverse. The coin is a mixture of yellow and orange-gold. These colors, along with the remaining luster, attest to the coins originality. For the grade, the surfaces are clean and free of abrasion marks or other distractions worthy of individual mention.

The coin is identified as a BD-4 variety. It has a Large 8 in the date which touches the drapery and is also above the 9 at the top. The 9 is shallowly punched and the 1 is heavily punched. The same obverse die was used for BD-3 when it was combined with a 14 Star reverse. The BD-4 reverse has 13 Stars and rather prominent cuds from the rim to the ES in STATES and the O in OF. The reverse also shows an irregular cross pattern of stars above the eagle. The left foot of the first A in AMERICA is near, but not touching, Feather 4.

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 ­­­8 stars. Another 5 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 because of it.

The reverse shows a heraldic eagle. However, Scot mixed up the positions of the arrows and olive branch. The arrows held in the wrong claw signify defiant militarism. Either Scot made an error copying the image of the Great Seal, or he deliberately changed the symbolism in keeping with very warlike stance. Considering that the United States at this time was engaged in a naval war with France (the undeclared Franco-American War of 1798 to 1800, which took place on the East coast of North America and the Caribbean and resulted in the end of French privateer attacks on U.S. shipping), the latter is probably more likely. The French would be especially sensitive to a message within the heraldry, and the young United States was brash in that they had just defeated the super power, England in gaining independence. In the field above the eagle are thirteen stars and above them, an arc of clouds. A banner from wing to wing has the motto E PLURIBUS UNUM.

Scot was born in 1744. It is uncertain if he was born in Edinburgh, Scotland or in England. 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 1781 he moved to Philadelphia. 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. Despite these limitations, 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.

The early Mint in Philadelphia had many challenges. 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. 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. 

The BD-4 variety has an R4+ rarity rating. Since the grading services do not distinguish varieties for early date gold half eagles, the population report is of limited use. In its Census, NGC shows 10 1798 Large 8, 13 Stars half eagles in AU55 condition with 24 better.