Five Dollar Gold Coin is the first gold coin minted in the U S. The first U.S.
gold coins of any denomination were the half eagle golf coins of 1795-Chief Engraver
Robert Scot's Draped Bust/Small Eagle design. Its obverse featured a portrait
of Liberty in a soft cap, and the reverse, adapted from an ancient Roman cameo,
depicted a naturalistic small eagle perched on a simple branch. The small eagle,
however, proved immediately unpopular, being characterized by many as "scrawny."
Scot
set out to appease the critics and improve the design, and his resulting Five
Dollar Gold Coin, the Heraldic eagle reverse motif was based on the bird gracing
the Great Seal of the United States. This Five Dollar Gold Coin design is called
Heraldic because it is the stylized supporter of the nation's shield, much as
the lion and unicorn support the British coat of arms. Scot's version of this
Five Dollar Gold Coin combined a chicken-like head with a body wide enough to
hold the thirteen-stripe shield. The Five Dollar Gold Coin's upraised wings are
thin, partly covered by a flowing scroll inscribed E PLURIBUS UNUM. Clouds overhead
frame thirteen to sixteen stars-symbolizing the original states and three new
ones formed after independence. Scot blundered sith this Five Dollar Gold Coin
in one respect, however, apparently forgetting that directions are reversed in
heraldry, which regards the eagle as if it were a person facing the viewer. The
eagle's right or "dexter" side is therefore the viewer's left or "sinister"
side. Thirteen arrows are in the eagle's right claw, an omen of war. This oddity
continued until the series ended in 1807.
The Five Dollar Gold Coin comprised
only ten dates, the series is rich in history and rarity and includes three early
dates long steeped in mystery. Although Scot did not cut the Heraldic eagle reverse
dies until early in 1798, strangely enough it exists with obverses dated 1795,
1796/5 and 1797.
The first 1798 Five Dollar Gold Coin dies used with the
Heraldic reverse had a large 8 in the date and thirteen reverse stars. The shield
bears six "red" stripes composed of five lines each. This system of
showing color by raised engraver's lines was a code created by 16th century engravers
to show colors in elaborate coats of arms that could only be printed in black
and white. The next Five Dollar Gold Coin dies showed a large date with shield
stripes made up of three raised lines each. Above were fourteen stars, soon revised
to only thirteen at the order of the third Mint Director, Elias Boudinot. These
stars are found in either an arc or a cross pattern. Small date 1798 coins finish
the year's mintage, which totaled only 24,867 Five Dollar Gold Coin of all varieties.
Only
7,451 Five Dollar Gold Coins were reported for 1799, including pieces with a large
final 9 and either large or small stars; and a large recut 9 with stars large
or small. Coinage of 1800 comprised 37,628 pieces, but many of these are believed
to have been dated 1799, while additional coins were struck during 1801 with still
other dates. The steel-starved Mint used any available dies for as long as they
were serviceable. Although 1801 dies for the Five Dollar Gold Coin were prepared,
no coins were struck from them. This date exists only in ghostly form as the next
year's 1802 over 1 overdate! All 1803 Five Dollar Gold Coins are also overdates,
properly called 1803/2.
The 1804 half eagles are known with small 8 and
small over large 8, the latter very rare in mint state. Five Dollar Gold Coins
of 1806 occur with either pointed-top or knob-top 6. The last date is 1807, known
in three major Five Dollar Gold Coin varieties. The first Five Dollar Gold Coin
shows a small date with small obverse and reverse stars; the second Five Dollar
Gold Coin displays small date and large obverse and reverse stars. The last Five
Dollar Gold Coin variety is the large date with large obverse and reverse stars.
What
then of the Heraldic eagle coins bearing the dates 1795, 1797 and 1797/5? To understand
these enigmatic issues, it is necessary to recall the annual epidemics of yellow
fever that prostrated Philadelphia in the late summer and early autumn months.
At the end of the 18th century, Philadelphia was still the second largest city
in the English-speaking world, largely recovered from the destruction of the Revolutionary
War and the British occupation, but helpless against mosquito-borne epidemic disease.
Yellow fever drove the wealthy into the countryside, while the poorer classes
grimly awaited the scythe of fever to sweep the city. These annual outbreaks wreaked
havoc with the Mint's production.
When the second mint director, Henry William
DeSaussure, stopped Five Dollar Gold Coin, half eagle coinage in September, 1795
to concentrate on eagles, the still usable 1795 Five Dollar Gold Coin, half eagle
dies were stored away, one of these redated as 1796/5. After the 1796 yellow fever
epidemic, a 1797 die was created and used with the proper Small Eagle reverse.
In the frantic scurrying of the 1797 fever, all these dies were locked away in
the strong room of the Bank of the United States while the Mint closed down completely.
After the Mint resumed operations in the early months of 1798, sudden demand for
Five Dollar Gold Coin, half eagles led to the muling of these older dies with
Scot's new Heraldic Eagle reverses. The new reverses were pressed into service
with the now lightly rusted 1795, 1797/5 and 1797 obverses to create the mysterious
"combination" Five Dollar Gold Coins that are so rare today.
Perhaps
as many as 316,867 Heraldic Eagle Five Dollar Gold Coin pieces were struck at
the Philadelphia Mint between 1798 and 1807, though the lack of precision in early
Mint records makes this total an estimate rather than a concrete fact. No Five
Dollar Gold Coin proofs exist, though the softness and ductility of gold coupled
with Mint attention to detail did create some extraordinary "presentation"
Five Dollar Gold Coin coins of uncertain purpose.
Five Dollar Gold Coins
from this period were all but ignored by early collectors. The late Walter Breen
first examined this denomination's die varieties in his pioneer Early U.S. Half
Eagles, published in Numismatic Scrapbook in 1966. Collectors today primarily
pursue only one example of this Five Dollar Gold Coin design for "type,"
as few can afford to assemble either complete date, or date and variety collections.
All Five Dollar Gold Coin dates are scarce to extremely rare in any grade. The
1797 Five Dollar Gold Coin with sixteen star reverse is unique and is now part
of the Lilly Collection in the Smithsonian, forever off the market. Along with
the remaining two "backdated" Five Dollar Gold Coins, other rare Five
Dollar Gold Coin issues are those of 1798 and 1799. The 1806 Five Dollar Gold
Coin is the most "common," particularly in high grade. Uneven strike
sometimes resulted in weakness at the centers of this design, and actual wear
may first appear on the locks behind the ear or on the forehead, eagle's outer
wings and on the clouds, rather than at the ear or shield.
In 1807, the
new mint director, Robert Patterson, appointed German engraver John Reich as assistant
to Scot. Reich's first assignment was to improve the Five Dollar Gold Coin coinage
designs. Six months after his arrival, the new Five Dollar Gold Coin, half eagles
appeared, this time with a capped bust of Liberty facing left, and a new reverse
with a more natural and peaceful looking eagle.
Five Dollar Gold Coin
SPECIFICATIONS:
Diameter: approximately 25 millimeters
Weight: 8.75 grams
Composition: .9167 gold, .0833 copper
Edge: Reeded
Net Weight:
.2578 ounce pure gold
