Heritage World Coin Auctions
CSNS Signature US Coin Sale 1254 26-28 Apr 2017
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Early Half Eagles
1820 $5 Curl Base 2, Small Letters, BD-6, R.7, AU50 ANACS. Bass-Dannreuther Die State c/a. The 1820 half eagle is scarce in all grades and all varieties, but coins showing the Curl Base 2 in the date are rare across the board. Typically, when a Curl Base 2 coin is seen, it is a BD-5 representative, which is the most "available" Curl Base 2 variety with 20 to 25 pieces known. The present coin shares the BD-5 obverse, but the Small Letters reverse identifies the BD-6 die marriage, which is believed to survive in numbers no greater than 10 coins and possible as little as six or seven. This is a variety that only the most prominent collections have possessed, including Bass, Eliasberg, Clapp, Earle, and very few others. This example, seemingly conservatively graded in an old white, small size ANACS holder as AU50, is the first BD-6 coin that we have ever offered.
Close study of this piece fails to expose any weakness in the detail from either wear or strike, and the fields retain large areas of prooflike reflectivity. The rich yellow-gold patina has tinges of deeper orange-gold in the fields. Some faint hairlines in the fields, seen only with a loupe, are not unusual on a prooflike eagle half eagle with as little wear as the present. We anticipate intense bidder interest in this extremely rare offering.
Ex: Public Auction Sale (Superior, 2/1991), lot 2781; The Michael I. Keston Collection (Superior, 1/1996), lot 111.
From The Hutchinson Collection, Part II.
HID02901242017
1820 $5 Curl Base 2, Small Letters, BD-6, R.7, AU50 ANACS. Bass-Dannreuther Die State c/a. The 1820 half eagle is scarce in all grades and all varieties, but coins showing the Curl Base 2 in the date are rare across the board. Typically, when a Curl Base 2 coin is seen, it is a BD-5 representative, which is the most "available" Curl Base 2 variety with 20 to 25 pieces known. The present coin shares the BD-5 obverse, but the Small Letters reverse identifies the BD-6 die marriage, which is believed to survive in numbers no greater than 10 coins and possible as little as six or seven. This is a variety that only the most prominent collections have possessed, including Bass, Eliasberg, Clapp, Earle, and very few others. This example, seemingly conservatively graded in an old white, small size ANACS holder as AU50, is the first BD-6 coin that we have ever offered.
Close study of this piece fails to expose any weakness in the detail from either wear or strike, and the fields retain large areas of prooflike reflectivity. The rich yellow-gold patina has tinges of deeper orange-gold in the fields. Some faint hairlines in the fields, seen only with a loupe, are not unusual on a prooflike eagle half eagle with as little wear as the present. We anticipate intense bidder interest in this extremely rare offering.
Ex: Public Auction Sale (Superior, 2/1991), lot 2781; The Michael I. Keston Collection (Superior, 1/1996), lot 111.
From The Hutchinson Collection, Part II.
HID02901242017