RARE
1807 CAPPED BUST $5 PCGS MS63, BUST LEFT
- $26,000.00 Click on Coin Image to
enlarge
Eye
appealing luster drips from this lovely Early 1807 Half
Eagle. The coin has clean fields with virtually no contact
marks observable. The strike is full and sharp on both
sides. We see every detail of each device including
all of Liberty’s curls and every feather on the
eagle and line in the shield. Light clash marks are
seen on the obverse, which do not detract from the coin’s
eye appeal or grade. 1807 is the first year of this
issue, which was designed by John Reich. He also used
this design for the half dollar. Some of his contemporaries
criticized the obverse because they said that Liberty
looked like his “fat mistress.”
Please contact me by email
or telephone 1-941-291-2156
to reserve this great coin.
Liberty faces left, perhaps to the
West, instead of right, to Europe as did its predecessor.
In addition to looking left, Liberty wears a modified
Phrygian cap. A true Phrygian cap or pilleus was shaped
like half an eggshell. In ancient Rome it was worn
by former slaves to symbolize emancipation and to
conceal the closely cropped hair or shaved head, which
marked slave status. In 1825 Mint Director Samuel
Moore asked Thomas Jefferson if the cap was a suitable
emblem. Jefferson responded that a liberty cap should
not be worn by a goddess who herself represents liberty,
after all we were never slaves. However, the device
continued to be used on gold coinage until 1834.
A second change that Reich made was
the addition of the denomination on the coin. Most
previous precious metal coins did not include this
information. They were valued by their weight and
fineness, as were European coins, and thought of as
bullion. Reich used “5 D.” for the denomination.
He used the numeral and the abbreviation because lettering
would have interfered with the olive branch leaves,
and the design would have been much too crowded. He
also “fixed” the mistakes made by Scott,
his predecessor. The previous heraldic eagle had arrows
and olive branch in the wrong claws, showing either
very warlike symbolism or naïve confusion. Reich
also removed the stars and clouds above the eagle
and moved the banner with E PLURIBUS UNUM to arc above
the eagle.
While serving as the Secretary of
State, Thomas Jefferson was also in charge of the
Mint. In his travels to France, Jefferson learned
about the various aspects of the minting process.
In 1801, as president, he recommended that John Reich
be hired as Engraver at the Mint. Reich was a skilled
engraver who had sold himself into indentured servitude
in order to finance his passage to the United States
from Bavaria. While John Reich was unable to become
the Engraver, he was hired for other duties and became
Robert Scott’s assistant. Because Scott’s
eyesight was failing, the new Mint Director, Robert
Patterson assigned Reich to redesign.
