Half Eagles
1798 SMALL $5 HALF EAGLE GOLD
Written/Compiled by Dennis
Hengeveld
The final date of the small eagle variety of five
dollar gold pieces, or half eagles, is dated 1798. It is
among the rarest of the early American gold coins, with an
estimated mintage of just 300 to 600 pieces. Of these, only
seven or eight pieces are known in all grades, many of which
have been known to the numismatic community for decades.
Except for a single piece which came to light in 1996 (and
which might have been included in previous listings of known
specimens) there have been no new discoveries of this issue
in the last 35 years. Already since the mid 1800s, unlike
many now rare American coins, it has been considered to be
an extremely rare issue. On average this issue is offered at
public auction just once every decade.
All known specimens were struck from a single die
pair. The reverse die was previously (probably around the
same time) used to strike a single variety dated 1795, and
it appears to have been made in late 1796 or early 1798.
Soon after it was first used for striking 1798 small eagles
it broke, and that appears to be the reason for the rarity
of this issue. This die could very well have been the very
last small eagle reverse die which was made and remained in
production, as the Mint switched to the large eagle design
in mid 1798. Because of economical reasons the old dies
remained in use, and were paired with random obverse dies
that were around, to create a number of famous and enigmatic
issues like the 1798 small eagle five dollar gold piece.
Another factor which might have played a role in the
creation of this issue was the yellow fever epidemic which
broke out in Philadelphia and at the Mint in 1798. Coinage
was temporarily halted; and when it was resumed it might
have been the case that not enough working dies of the
correct type were at hand to resume the much needed
production.
Walter Breen, in his Encyclopedia, suggested that the
mintage of this issue was 691 pieces, delivered on
January 4, 1798. Another possibility is that it was
included in the delivery of February 28, 1798. Both
situations appear to be unlikely given the number of
known specimens compared to the survival rate of most
early American gold coins. It could very well be part of
either of the two deliveries listed above, but to say
that is certain would be incorrect. No listings of what
the deliveries exactly included have ever been found in
the Mint archives, and as such all this are just
assumptions. The early workers did not care much for
quality, so if dies were useable they were used, despite
cracks in the dies or other problems. When it broke,
however, it was damaged beyond repair and a new die was
set in the coining press. Because of these
circumstances, modern numismatists now have a large
number of different varieties and die combinations to
study and to reconstruct the sequence of emissions of
early American coinage. These studies were extensively
studied by several researchers, with the most recent
work on the subject published by Bass-Dannreuther,
titled “Early U.S. Gold Coin Varieties”.
When Edgar H. Adams studied this issue extensively
during the first years of the 20th century he could only
locate two examples. More have been discovered in the
years afterwards, and this issue now has seven or eight
specimens known to exist in all grades. The last of
these sold in 2000 at auction for the staggering amount
of $264,500, it reportedly was discovered in 1996 and
graded by PCGS as EF-40. The finest known is the Ex:
Mehl; Green; Farouk; coin, which grades AU-55. Of the
number of pieces known to exist there are three coins
which are unavailable to collectors, with two of them in
the Smithsonian institution and a third in the Harry W.
Bass Research Foundation Collection. This leaves the
total number of available coins at just a handful, and
these are seldom available. As such, this is a
first-class rarity of the early Philadelphia Mint, which
is always destined for the finest sets and advanced
collectors.
