1798 $5 (1798 Half Eagle) Small 8, Large Eagle. NGC AU53. Touches of mint luster remain on this rare, early 1798 Half Eagle. Clean surfaces and originality characterize this almost mint coin. Light wear is seen on the highest point of both sides of the coin, in keeping with the grade. The strike shows central weakness, which is characteristic of the date. The early half eagle coins have no denomination because gold was valued by its weight and fineness as was the European coinage of the time. As seen on contemporary Large Cents, dentils are at the edge of both the obverse and reverse of these coins.

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 eight stars. Another five stars follow LIBERTY down to the bust. (Another issue of this date had fourteen stars.) 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 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. The reverse shows a heraldic eagle.

However, Scott mixed up the positions of the arrows and olive branch. The arrows held in the wrong claw signify defiant militarism. Either Scott made an error copying the image of the Great Seal, or he deliberately changed the symbolism, perhaps as a warning to France concerning American shipping interests. In the field above the eagle are thirteen stars and above them, six clouds. A banner from wing to wing has the motto E PLURIBUS UNUM.

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 early sliver 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.

In the 1790s the United States Mint operated under rather poor and sometimes chaotic conditions. These were made even worse by the annual yellow fever epidemic that went through Philadelphia. Consequently the Mint shut operations during the late summer and early fall every year. Evidently dies were locked up and later taken out of storage without great attention and care. Also dies were not discarded until they were completely unusable. So dies that could be used were used even if new dies might have been available. Because of these factors, it is believed that the obverse dies of 1795-97 were used for some of the 1798 coins with the new reverse. Consequently, some dies made for 1795, 1796, and 1797 half eagles were used with the reverse design created in 1798.

This new design, the Heraldic Eagle reverse, is identical to the one used on silver coins of 1798 to 1807. It is the only time a United States gold coin used the same obverse or reverse design as a non-gold coin.

Early gold half eagles were struck in very small numbers. All the varieties of 1798 had a total mintage of 24,867. Many of them were melted prior to 1834. In its population report, NGC shows 6 Small 8s in AU53 with 14 better.