1795 Heraldic Eagle reverse PCGS graded MS-62. This coin is the unique Breen 6-W die variety. Although rare as a die variety, the 1795 half eagle with Heraldic Eagle reverse is also very rare as a type, with perhaps 50 specimens known in all grades, most of which are of the Breen 7-X variety. This example boasts reflective light yellow gold surfaces, splendid and attractive with only the most minor scattered marks and a few hairlines. A few parallel adjustment marks descend diagonally at central obverse, boldly struck with only a minor area of weakness at the eagle’s throat and the centers of all stars well delineated, a tiny curved lintmark present above Liberty’s hat band. A scarcely noticeable copper spot within the dentils outside star 14 identifies this! as the F.C.C. Boyd specimen, sold by Abe Kosoff in 1946. Kosoff called this piece “a splendid Uncirculated specimen with considerable lustre.” Other identifiers include a curved lintmark after STATES and a spot left of the crossbar of the first A in AMERICA. The greatest collections of early half eagles have lacked this variety. Ted Naftzger never owned a Breen 6-W, nor did Louis Eliasberg, Sr., nor did Harry W. Bass, Jr. None is in the National Numismatic Collection or American Numismatic Society. The pedigree of this coin is as follows: F.C.C. Boyd Collection; Abe Kosoff’s “World Greatest Collection” sale (Boyd Collection), January 1946, Lot 318; Stack’s sale of the Dr. Conway Bolt Collection, April 1966, Lot 893; Bowers and Merena’s sale of September 2001, Lot 253; Stack’s sale of June 2002, Lot 65. Cited in Walter Breen’s Early United States Half Eagles 1795-1838 as “apparently unique; no whisper of a rumor of another one.”

$165,000

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