A collector who wishes to commit a substantial sum can form a set of the highest possible quality. -- Norman Stack, United States Type Coins, 1986..A giant among the Pogue half eagles, blessed with incomparable aesthetic gifts and nearly unparalleled technical quality, a combination that few coins of this entire type could ever rival. Luxurious and complex deep yellow and sunset orange toning shows glimpses of pale blue and violet, a color scheme that was never common but in the modern era is extraordinarily rare. Unspoiled and richly original, this coin is the numismatic equivalent of a car with wooden wheels, a reminder of a simpler and mostly forgotten era. Its luster is abundant and deeply satiny, even bolder on the reverse than the somewhat reflective obverse, though in fairness both sides glow and return the beams of light shone on them directly. The strike is extremely crisp, with fine lines on the individual strands of Libertys hair seen at the central obverse, strong star centers, and other similarly exacting details. The details in the eagles wings show clarity that imitates life. The minty, frosty fields are nearly immaculate, showing very few of even the most minor lines or contact points. A thin vertical hairline is seen from the inside tip of star 2 north to near star 4. A small batch of lines is found in the field near stars 9 and 10, and a tiny mark is hidden in the denticles below the final date digit. The reverse is positively pristine.Fine concentric lathe lines remain visible in Libertys cap and low on her neck, and a burst of reflectivity is present near her ear and between her shoulder tresses where the portrait was polished in the die. The obverse is perfect, but the reverse is cracked, first across the shield, on a nearly perfect horizontal line connecting the lowest points of each wing. A broad arc crack strings from the rim between ST of STATES to the eagles eye up again to the upper flag of F of OF; a fine crack splits off and crosses the top of the first T in STATES. Another arc splits off right of UNUM and crosses the wing at right to the center of M in AMERICA, a crack that begets another that runs down the wing at right, along the right side of the shield, and ends at the polished hollow leaf midway on the olive branch. Nearly terminal, though that state includes a crack that continues across the olive branch through the curve of C in AMERICA, a crack not yet present here. Following that crack, the only remaining mystery is which piece fell from the completely shattered reverse die first.Though two different obverse dies were used to strike the half eagles of this date, both exhibit the 1802/1 overdate. The obverse shows what Bass and Dannreuther call the "centered overdate," while the second obverse die (the "high overdate") is a little less obvious. This was probably the obverse die described by George A. Seavey in the American Journal of Numismatics in March 1869 as "1801 half eagle, 1 under 2." While 26,006 half eagles were delivered in 1801, all or nearly all were dated 1800. The two dies produced in expectation of an 1801-dated production remained shelved until 1802.While tens of thousands of half eagles were minted in 1802, PCGS has certified but two at the gem level of MS-65 or finer, with this specimen alone within the top rank of MS-66. Henry Chapman summarized this coins eye appeal succinctly in the 1912 Earle sale, calling it "a most beautiful example." It is extraordinary enough to have been chosen by Norman Stack to represent the design type, the finest encountered over the course of a lifetime filled with opportunities to acquire coins of superlative quality. Since the Norman Stack Type Set was broken up and sold by private treaty 25 years ago, this piece has been off the market; in fact, its last auction appearance may have been the Earle sale over a century ago.
