1798 Half Eagle - 1798 $5 PCGS AU50. Large 8, 13 Star Reverse, BD-5, R5+. This eye-appealing, rare variety 1798 Half Eagle Large Eagle has an above average strike with strong details on Libertys hair strands, the shield, the eagles wings, and most of the clouds. Bits of original mint luster remain within the devices. The coin is a mixture of greenish and yellow gold, which attest to its originality. The surfaces are clean for the grade with no notable abrasion marks or other distractions. Dentils are full on the obverse and about two-thirds on the reverse.

The coin is identified as a BD-5 variety. It has a Large 8 in the date which touches the drapery and is below the 9 at the bottom. The L in LIBERTY is away from her cap. There is a rust line in the field below the ER in LIBERTY, and a die crack from Star 7 down to the hair. The reverse shows small stars in a perfect cross pattern. The first A in AMERICA is above, but not touching, Feather 4. The reverse die was also used in 1799 to create BD-2.

Robert Scot designed the coin. 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 heraldic eagle reverse shows the eagle with up stretched wings and a Union shield on its breast. A banner inscribed E PLURIBUS UNUM curls across the left wing and under the right. Except for the wing tips, the inscription UNITED STATES OF AMERICA is in an arc near the periphery. Thirteen stars are above the eagles head under the clouds. Dentils are near the edge on both sides of the coin.

In what some have called colossal design blunder, Robert Scot placed the arrows in the wrong talon.  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. 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.  

Since neither PCGS nor NGC lists Draped Bust half eagles by die variety, their population report numbers are not particularly useful. On the other hand, Dannreuther and Bass in their Early U.S. Gold Coin Varieties indicate that for the 1798 half eagle BD-5 variety only 30 to 40 are known in total.