1795 Small Eagle $5.00 NGC MS62
BD-1 Variety - Less than 50 Known |
 The 1795 Small Eagle half eagles were the first gold coins produced by the Philadelphia Mint. Production was limited in the early years by the lack of a dependable bullion supply. The Mint depended on depositors to supply all the precious metal used in coinage operations. The bullion was coined to order for each depositor and, when the supply of planchets ran out, the coiners removed the dies from the screw press, and went on with other work.The sporadic nature of this coinage probably contributed to the large number of varieties produced in the early years. Pairs of dies were used haphazardly to coin a particular delivery, then stored randomly. The coiner might chose a different combination of obverse and reverse dies for the next production run, unthinkingly creating a new variety in the process.
BD-1 Variety with fewer than 50 Known R-5 |
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The design type with a Small Eagle reverse was produced from 1795 to 1798, with the rarity of each date increasing from one year to the next.1795 is the most common date of the type and 1798 is the rarest. A certain conundrum exists with these coins. In 1795, 12 different die varieties were produced with a recorded mintage of 8,707 coins, while the very next year saw a single die variety with a mintage of 6,196 coins.
This means that the average mintage per die variety in 1795 was about 700 coins and in 1796 was 6,196 coins. Or, perhaps many of the coins struck in 1796 were actually dated 1795. We subscribe to the latter theory, and suggest that the average mintage per variety for the two years was approximately 1,150 coins |
Call Us for Information on this coin and/or other Classic Rarities - 866-765-3352 |
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