[Mehl] sold most of the [Newcomer] gold coins and many of the other issues to Col. E.H.R. Green in the summer of [1932], so no catalogue of this amazing and vital U.S. collection was ever written before it was dispersed.” — Carl W.A. Carlson, The American Numismatic Association Anthology, 1991</em>With spectacularly fresh, frosty surfaces, both sides of this half eagle roll with satiny luster and glow with appealing reflectivity. Even light yellow coloration dominates, with a blush of rose seen within Liberty’s lowest curl. Typical of the type, the strike is assertive and design elements stand out in bold relief, with expected softness seen on the curl next to Liberty’s ear and on the eagle’s talon at right. The surfaces are free of all but the most minor evidence of handling, including some scattered and trivial hairlines, a faint abrasion in the lower right obverse field, some light chatter above the eagle’s head, and a single tiny nick on the bridge of Liberty’s nose. The eagle and portrait show splendid frost, and the visual appeal is as pleasant as the grade suggests.The obverse, used on both varieties of this year, is new, while the previously used reverse makes its final appearance here. A slight crack through star 9, connecting its upper two points, may have shortened its life; the crack was perhaps caused by the firm repunching of that star. Stars 8 and 12 are also recut, though with less ardor, as is the 0 in the date. Harry Bass noted that 18 was also recut on his specimen; the lack of evidence for that here suggests a careful, light lapping in the area. The recutting previously seen atop UNITED and ICA on the 1829 use of this reverse is less visible here, and a crack jogs from the bead above the right side of N in UNITED through the tops of ITE to the bead above the upright of D. Another short, faint crack extends from a bead between OF and AMERICA in perpendicular fashion, reaching into the blank field below. The reverse has been lapped, most evident from the emptier details near the junction of the feather to the arrow shaft. This majestic early half eagle appears to be a new addition to modern listings of this date. Its last appearance in the historical record was in 1931, when this coin was photographed on a gang plate for B. Max Mehl after his acquisition of the Waldo Newcomer Collection. Mehl sold the entire group of half eagles to E.H.R. Green in 1932. Most of Newcomer’s half eagles were sold to King Farouk in 1943, via Stack’s and Hans M.F. Schulman, though some may have ended up in the Josiah K. Lilly bequest to the Smithsonian Institution via Clifford T. Weihman. If this coin did end up in King Farouk’s cabinet, which is at least as likely as not, it was sold as part of lot 246, which included four half eagles: both varieties of 1830, an 1831, and an 1832 13 Stars. The lot was purchased by London dealer Fred Baldwin, and dispersed thereafter. When this coin was acquired from David Akers in January 1989, Akers indicated that this piece had been handled by Abner Kreisberg in June 1959. The transaction was evidently private, and no information on where this coin was before or after has been found.While Newcomer had incredible colonial coins and fine runs of many Federal series, gold coins were his focus. Newcomer amassed 123 different varieties of pre-1835 U.S. gold coins, just 10 fewer than the number collected by Harry W. Bass, Jr. John Dannreuther has described Newcomer as “a giant among coin collectors of the first half of the 20th century, rivaled in early gold coins only by the greatest American buyers of all time: Virgil Brand and Colonel E.H.R. Green.”In Akers’ 1979 book on half eagles, he located just eight prior appearances of the 1830 Large 5D variety in Mint State. Five of those eight appearances represented just two coins. The Wolfson, Miles, and Delp sales all included the same coin, and the Fred E. Davies coin was offered again in Stack’s February 1977 sale of the T. Henry Allen Collection. In recent years, most offerings have been of coins at the lower ranks of Mint State. Only one coin graded MS-65 (PCGS) has been offered in over a decade, and the PCGS Population Report shows only one MS-66 for the date. PCGS# 8152. NGC ID: 25RA.
