1804 Capped Bust Right Half Eagle. BD-3. Rarity-5. Small 8, Repunched 4. MS-62+ (PCGS).An unusually vivid, highly attractive example of this challenging 1804 half eagle die pairing. Deep honey-orange surfaces are enhanced by wisps of vivid reddish-apricot, salmon pink, and powder blue iridescence that finds greatest expression in the center of the obverse and through the reverse field. Sharply struck with all design elements crisp, there are no signs of adjustment and also no areas of softness. Full, bright frosty luster rounds out an impressive list of physical attributes. BD Die State b/b.<p>BD-3 represents the only use of this obverse, a die identifiable by a small digit 8 in the date that is not repunched, although the base of the digit 4 is prominently recut. Additionally, star 9 nearly touches the letter Y in LIBERTY below the right serif. The reverse of this variety is a workhorse die that was first used to strike the 1803 BD-3, 1803 BD-4 and 1804 BD-2 varieties, and then the 1804 BD-4 and BD-5 varieties after its use in the present pairing. The left foot of the first letter A in AMERICA touches the third feather and barely touches the fourth feather in the eagles left wing, and the letters TE in UNITED are close.<p>The estimated mintage for this variety is 2,000 to 3,000 coins out of the 30,475 half eagles reportedly struck in 1804. This is certainly one of the scarcer die marriages of the issue, rarer than BD-1 and BD-2. The surviving population is thought to number just 40 to 50 coins.<p>The <em>Guide Book</em> includes this variety under the listing of Small 8, although the 2006 Bass-Dannreuther reference uses the terminology Normal 8 and Normal 4. Both the 8 and the 4 are regarded as "normal" only by comparison, as other dies of this date have 8s and 4s that are not at all normal. In one, the primary digit 8 is seen punched over a much larger 8; the 4 comes in the "normal" size, as here, and also in a small-sized variant, which is considerably smaller than the 180 punches used for the balance of the date. The letter T in UNITED also shows two features that are a bit odd. The first is that it is repunched right, with another serif appearing at the top, and the lower right serif is broken off as seen in prior years when this same broken T punch was used to mark dies. In this case the engraver used a tool to somewhat correct the missing serif, but only on this letter, as the two Ts in STATES show no effort to correct this deficiency.PCGS# 8085. NGC ID: 25NZ.From the Chicago Collection.
