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Auction: 23004 - Ancient and British Coins - Featuring the 'White Rose' Collection
Lot: 345

(g) USA, Gold 'Classic Head' Half-Eagle of 5-Dollars, 1834 $5 'Plain 4' HM3, Philadelphia, by William Kneass, Liberty head with curled hair and headband, thirteen stars surround, rev. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - 5 D, Eagle with wings outstretched clutching arrows and branch in talons, shield over chest with vertical stripes on bottom part and horizontal stripes on top part, edge milled, .8992 Fine Gold, 8.29g, 6h (Haynor-McCloskey 3 [R2]; Fb. 135; KM 57; PCGS 765193; NGC E2KE), lightly rubbed but residually brilliant with hints of orangey peripheral tone, a pleasing very fine, an historic issue on account of its short-lived debased standard and the first Half Eagle since the 1790s to appear without the Motto, a reported original mintage of 657,460 pieces

These coins were initially produced under the US Coinage Act of 28 June 1834, which set the standard weight at 129 grains and the gold content at 116 grains, hence .8992 Fineness. Classic Heads (1834-1838), struck after the Coinage Act of 18 January 1837 had a gold content to 116.1 grains and a standard fineness of .900. At the outset of the coinage the intrinsic content of the pre-existing Half Eagle outweighed its face value, both prompting the debasement and the omission of E PLURIBUS UNUM to aid its distinguishing from the previous type

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Sold for
£520

Starting price
£400