I have the honor to inform you of the safe arrival of the American Caravan of the United States, via the interior, from the Province of New Mexico, and beg leave to remark that the quantity of fur and coin brought into Missouri, and the quantity of gold and silver shipped from the ports of Matamoros and Vera Cruz to the Mint at Philadelphia is immense.” — J. Coleman Boggs of Columbia, Missouri to Secretary of State Edward Livingston, November 8, 1832</em>Satiny luster interplays with dusky medium gold toning over both obverse and reverse, creating a look that pleases the eye and suggests strong originality. Deeper orange tones, intermingled with pale steel and blue, frame the peripheries. Metal fatigue lines, so often seen radiating from the centers and away from design elements on specimens of this type, are present around the borders, in front of Liberty’s profile, and jacketing the left side of the eagle motif. Only minimal hairlines and insignificant abrasions are present. A thin scratch crosses Liberty’s portrait from cheek to hair below her ear, a shorter one is seen right of the date. Some harmless dark encrustation clings to the eagle’s feathers left of the lower shield, and some similar specks remain on the surface between stars 2 and 3. Aside from the usual softness on Liberty’s ear curl and atop the eagle’s wing at left, the strike is firm, lacking just a bit at the centers of stars 5 and 9. The dies are uncracked and unclashed, the only die state known. Star 4 is dramatically recut, showing two extra points, among the boldest star recuttings in the series.The raw gold for the 157,487 half eagles coined in 1832 came from a wide variety of sources. The vast majority of the gold came from the mines of the gold regions of Georgia and the Carolinas, $678,000 worth according to the 1832 <em>Mint Report</em>. Another $80,000 was said in the same document to have come from “Mexico, South America, and the West Indies,” some of which came overland via Missouri. Portions of the Santa Fe Trail had existed for centuries, but it was first blazed by Anglo-American traders in 1821, when a debt-ridden Missourian named William Becknell had little to lose and set out for a trading expedition to the Spanish cities of New Mexico. In the meantime, word reached New Mexico that Mexico was now independent from Spain. Whereas Zebulon Pike was arrested when he crossed into Spanish-held territory in 1806, Becknell was welcomed, then sent home with bags full of specie. Word of his trading success spread, and by the early 1830s hundreds of men set out for New Mexico annually, via Kansas and southern Colorado. Access to the Missouri River put Columbia and Westport, near Independence, within reach of New Orleans and the world beyond.Mexico’s independence increased the trade between the United States and the former Spanish territory. It was easier to transact business with New Orleans and the east coast of the United States than Europe, and the flood of specie that followed was one of the primary reasons for placing a branch mint in New Orleans. The specie that came from Charles Bent’s 1832 caravan to New Mexico totaled $100,000, an incredible sum. J. Coleman Boggs, a trader whose brother was then Lieutenant Governor of Missouri Territory, got the honor of reporting the trade mission’s success to the Secretary of State.Attempts at finding an earlier provenance for this coin have found no concrete photographic matches, though this coin has certain aspects in common with the piece sold in the 1950 Adolphe Menjou sale and may be the same coin. Since this coin was acquired by D. Brent Pogue in 2000, only one other PCGS MS-64 has traded hands publicly, a piece sold at auction in August 2004. John Dannreuther has estimated that between 40 and 50 specimens of this issue have survived in all grades. With its excellent visual appeal and high technical grade, this specimen stands among the very finest known examples of this date.PCGS# 8156. NGC ID: 25RG.
