1807 Capped Bust Right Half Eagle. BD-1. Rarity-4+. Small Reverse Stars. MS-64 (PCGS).This memorable half eagle is sharply defined, boldly lustrous and from the final year of this challenging early gold series. Classic yellow-gold in appearance, the quality throughout confirms its near Gem rating by PCGS. The strike is nicely executed and well centered within uniform borders. Light obverse hairlines are noted, but they hardly detract. The reverse is also rotated slightly about 15 degrees to the right. A truly stunning coin, there is much to recommend this coin to collectors of high grade type coins or early half eagle varieties.pAmong the six known die marriages of the 1807, BD-1 and BD-6 are seen most often but, in keeping with the standards of the early half series, even these varieties are rare with Dannreuther accounting for only 80 to 100 survivors for each pairing. BD-1, as here, is the only variety with the small reverse stars, likely due to a die from the previous year being used, making it further desirable to specialists of the series. Very rarely offered this nice, and with an impressive pedigree to boot, the present example represents a significant find for both the advanced type collector and the specialist in early U.S. Mint gold.Ex A-Mark Coin (3/1978); our sale of the Harry W. Bass, Jr. Collection, October 1999, lot 779; Superiors March 2001 sale, lot 804; Heritages December 2005 sale, lot 1301; Heritages August 2007 sale, lot 1899; and Heritages January 2012 sale, lot 4856.
