1807 Half Eagle - 1807 $5 Bust Right NGC MS61. BD-6, R4+. This attractive, rare variety, Mint State 1807 Half Eagle has an above average strike and significant, muted mint luster within its devices. While usually softly struck in the centers, this piece has full details on Libertys hair, the upper part of the shield, the lower part of the eagles neck, most of the wing feathers, most of the stars, and the clouds. The surfaces are completely original, and only a couple of small obverse scratches in the right field and scattered, light abrasion marks keep this piece from a higher Mint State grade.

The coin is identified as the BD-6 variety. The tip of the hair curl is above the recut serif of the 1 in 1807. A new wider punch for the 0 shows the first 0s right side visible within at its interior right side. Star 13 is far from the bust, but Star 8 is close to the Y in LIBERTY. The reverse has Large Stars. The first A in AMERICA touches Feather 3 and is on top of and touches Feather 4. The right serif of the second A touches the eagles claw. There is a long die crack from the bottom left serif of N in UNITED across the arrow heads to the junction of the right wing and shield. This crack continues through the top left point of the shield and up through the stars above.

The obverse design 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 7 stars. Another 6 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 Type 2 reverse, issued in 1797, 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.

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.

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 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. 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.

NGC does not list the 1807 half eagle die varieties; however, in their population report they show 21 for all varieties in MS61 with 45 better. Dannreuther and Bass give the BD-6 an R4+ Rarity rating, which means that 80 to 100 pieces in all grades are known.