1820年美国自由帽版5美元金币 PCGS MS 66+。“Mr. Jackson’s aim was to secure the finest specimens possible, and to this end he was a most liberal purchaser both at auction and private sale.” — Wayte Raymond, 1913 Transcending nearly two centuries, this coin looks as it did the day it was struck. To hold it, especially at arm’s length, is to be transported back in time and imagine a day in 1820 when a coin like this could have been dropped into the palm of your hand. The obverse and reverse fields are both deeply reflective, showing full prooflike fabric and contrasting with the frosty devices in cameo fashion.
The strike is exact, precise, and complete, manifesting every detail the coiner intended to elicit from his dies. The subtle appearance of the adjustment marks on Liberty’s cheek suggests the force with which this coin was struck, enough to obliterate the evidence of planchet adjustment within even the greatest relief of the dies. Some microscopic vertical die finish lines are visible in the obverse fields, if enough effort is expended; they are more easily witnessed on the reverse, running slightly diagonal to the northeast. Hazy areas of frost, seen on the obverse behind Liberty’s head and on the reverse below NITE and MERI, are seen on other high grade examples of this variety. Two tiny nicks below the end of Liberty’s lowest neck curl are the only contact points of any significance.
Aside from a light crack or die flaw at the base of F in OF, both obverse and reverse dies are apparently perfect. Evidence of an earlier obverse clash has been fully effaced, though with some imagination some evidence can be seen within the curlicue of Liberty’s neck curl. It is hard to imagine that a coin of this era could survive in this mind-boggling quality to the present day. There are Proofs that look less “Proof” than this coin, as nearly every cataloger to describe it over the last century has remarked in their own way. Henry Chapman called this coin a “Semi-proof” in the 1912 Earle sale, while Wayte Raymond was emboldened to remove the modifier the following year, cataloging this coin as “Brilliant proof, the field very slightly rubbed.” The cataloger of Stack’s 55th Anniversary sale called this coin “Gem Brilliant Uncirculated, wholly prooflike,” while suggesting that this sounded a lot like the coin B. Max Mehl offered in his 1950 Jerome Kern sale. That coin, though unplated, could have been this specimen, cataloged as “beautiful brilliant semi-proof, just about equal to a brilliant proof.” The Kern sale coin was definitely struck from this die pair, as the only other Curl Base 2, Small Letters variety of this date does not appear with prooflike surfaces.
If this is the Kern coin, it has a further provenance to the Col. E.H.R. Green Collection. This coin offers a lesson in provenance research. It is a near twin to the Clapp-Eliasberg coin, purchased by Harry W. Bass, Jr. at the 1982 Eliasberg auction and retained by the Harry Bass Foundation. Both this coin and the Clapp-Eliasberg-Bass coin show nearly identical “planchet flakes,” actually the result of material left on the die face at the moment of striking. An area above D of the denomination is nearly identical on both coins, as is a protrusion above the central curvature of the eagle’s wing at left, another protrusion into the field near the base of the eagle’s neck, and a tiny circular area below the lower right serif of E in STATES.
For these struck-throughs to be present on both coins, these two pieces must have been struck in very close sequence to each other; they may have even been struck consecutively. Were photographs the sole form of evidence, the provenance of these two coins could easily become entangled; fortunately the provenance of the Bass coin has been published and promulgated. A tiny mark at the end of a denticle outside of star 5 is present on this coin and the photographic plates of both the 1912 Earle sale and the 1913 Jackson sale, but that mark is not present on the Bass coin. This is not only the finest 1820 Curl Base 2, Small Letters half eagle certified by PCGS, but the finest 1820 half eagle of any variety. PCGS# 519925. NGC ID: 25PU.
