He was for a long time identified with the collecting of United States coins, particularly gold pieces covering the period from the opening of the Mint until 1834, and was a close student of the many die varieties. — Edgar H. Adams on William H. Woodin, The Coin Collectors Journal, June 1934.The eagle of 1804 is a popular rarity, touched with the mystique of one of the signal years in American numismatics. The D. Brent Pogue specimen is preserved in an extraordinary state, placing it among the very finest known. While its color, luster, and surface are all superb, its strike separates it from the crowd. The level of detail present on both sides makes this specimen distinctive among typical specimens of this date, most of which show a poorly defined profile of Liberty. The design elements rest on a backdrop of deepest yellow gold, luxurious and bold, yielding to orange at the reverse periphery. The fields are reflective, but retain a measure of satiny cartwheel luster. The visual impact is strong, positive, and memorable. Light lines are seen in the fields, more on the obverse than the reverse. A mark between star 7 and the base of Libertys cap is the most significant contact point, though scatterings of minor marks are seen in the left obverse field and hidden in the central obverse. On the reverse, a single short abrasion is seen near the center of the shield.The small mintage of 1804 eagles were all coined from a single pair of dies, with no apparent advancement of the die state. A light crack connects the first four stars to 18 of the date, while the 0 shows other light cracks. Further cracks connect the centers of UN to the tops of ITE, and U of UNITED to the eagles tail and beyond to the second A of AMERICA. Spalling eruptions are seen below B of LIBERTY, between ER, at the right serif of T, and below star 9. The dies have been lapped after clashing, with evidence of the clash remaining around the eagles head. Heavy lapping lines are seen at the bust truncation, as on all known examples, diminishing as they run clockwise around the lower obverse periphery. A vertical ripple in the left obverse field is the beginning of a die failure that likely condemned this obverse to an early end. Some areas in the middle of Libertys portrait have been polished and appear hollow, showing gaps of lustrous reflectivity amidst the hair.Though the published mintage for this date was 3,757 pieces, that figure included eagles dated 1803, some of which were struck after the pieces dated 1804. Not included were the Plain 4 1804 eagles, made from new dies and coined as presentation pieces in 1834. John Dannreuther has posited that the actual number of coins struck with this famous date was as low as 2,500 coins, though fewer than 100 survive in all grades. In the years that followed their production, most were exported as bullion; those that werent were shabbily handled, making locating an attractive specimen a challenge today. The only specimen of this issue graded finer by PCGS shows significant adjustment marks on the profile. The example whose quality is most similar is the Pittman specimen, later offered in our 2005 sale of A Gentlemans Collection. In the 1998 Pittman catalog, David Akers remarked "the only other example of comparable quality that I have seen is the Mack Pogue coin which has been conservatively graded MS-63 by NGC."In 1911, Thomas Elder offered this coin as part of the William H. Woodin Collection, one of the first advanced cabinets of United States gold coins formed with connoisseurship and an advanced understanding of die varieties. Described as "Uncirculated. Very rare, especially in this superb preservation," its disappearance from traceable auctions for decades thereafter suggests that it was acquired by one of the great private collections of the day: Waldo Newcomer, Virgil Brand, or Col. E.H.R. Green. The reappearance of this special coin in the D. Brent Pogue Collection after a century makes for a fitting finale to one of the finest sets of early eagles ever assembled..
