1795 Capped Bust Right Half Eagle. Small Eagle. BD-1. Rarity-5. MS-61 (NGC). A lovely Mint State example of this classic first year half eagle issue. Bright honey-gold surfaces exhibit intermingled highlights of deep olive and light pinkish-rose. The strike is ideally centered and well executed, all design elements with razor sharp to full detail. Wispy hairlines and a touch of glossiness to the texture and noted for accuracy, but in the absence of sizeable marks the surfaces are uncommonly smooth in hand for the assigned grade. BD Die State b-c/a with the obverse cracked from the lower border through the digit 9 in the date to the drapery, also from stars 11 and 12 to the border.<p>As the first gold coin struck in the fledgling United States Mint, the popularity of the 1795 Small Eagle half eagle knows no bounds. The first delivery took place on July 31, 1795, to the extent of 744 pieces. Most numismatic scholars believe that these initial examples were struck from the die pairing that we now know as BD-1. This might seem improbable given that both the obverse and reverse dies were rusted at the time of striking, suggesting that they sat idle for quite some time before being pressed into service. Evidence of this rust is seen on the present coin in the lower left field around the date and stars 1 to 3, at the upper right reverse border after the word OF, and in other places. Modern numismatic scholarship suggests that the delay in production of this variety was not due to the Mints initial use of other dies, but rather the general delay in striking the first gold coins while its employees struggled to post the $10,000 bonds that Congress required before they could handle deposits of this precious metal.<p>John W. Dannreuther (<em>Early U.S. Gold Coin Varieties: A Study of Die States, 1795-1834</em>, 2006) believes that additional deliveries from this die pairing occurred after July 31, for an estimated mintage of 750 to 1,500 coins for the 1795 BD-1 half eagle. Survivors are elusive, as is the case for all pre-1834 U.S. gold coin issues, with the author accounting for only 40 to 50 pieces in all grades. This thoroughly appealing coin is likely to find its way into an advanced gold type set.
