The 1838 $5 Half Eagle represents one of many designs to a beautiful coin that had a circulation spanning more than one hundred years, between 1795 and 1929. The piece, consisting almost entirely of gold, was originally enacted in 1792 and was the first gold coin issued by the United States.

In its first iteration, the coin was composed of .9167 gold, and .0833 copper and silver. The original design was the work of United States Mint Chief Engraver Robert Scot. Scot had his start engraving plates for Virginia currency in the late 1700s. By 1781, Scot moved to Philadelphia to continue and expand his engraving work, eventually completing work for the Superintendent of the Office of Finance of the United States. In fact, some of this engraving work was for paper currency that would eventually fund the Siege of Yorktown. This permanently connected Scot to what would be the last major battle of the American Revolutionary War and a decisive win for George Washington. Scot’s connection to the history of the country’s formation became even stronger when, most likely, he became the engraver of the Great Seal shortly after it was designed for the Declaration of Independence.

Once Scot became the Chief Engraver at the United States Mint, he was asked to design coins for the U.S. that included eagle imagery and were “emblematic of liberty.” The prevalence of his work among items that have become historical cannot be understated. In addition to his coin work and his engraving work on the Great Seal, he also engraved rare stamp dies for each state, the seal for the U.S. Navy Department, and seal dies for the U.S. Department of State.

The original design of the Half Eagle coin was known as the “Turban Head,” and has imagery that is far removed from the 1838 design. Here there is a capped portrait of Liberty facing right and a small eagle is depicted on the reverse. By 1807 the design changed again. This iteration is known as the “Draped Bust” design. One of the several changes was the decision to include a “5 D” on one side of the coin to represent its value of $5.

The next version, which includes the 1838 issue, is known as the “Classic Head” and was developed in 1834. By the time this design took shape the coin’s value was greater than the face value of $5. In response, the US Mint changed the composition of the coin, reducing the gold content to .899 and .100 silver and copper. The weight and diameter of the coin were also reduced. The phrase “E PLURIBUS UNUM” was removed. Before the 1838 version was minted the gold content was changed again, this time increasing to .900. 

Throughout its history the $5 coin was popular enough to be the only denomination minted at eight of the US Mints. After the “Classic Head” the “Liberty Head” followed. The final iteration was the dramatically redesigned “Indian Head.”

The coin’s imagery is as enduring as all of Scot’s other work and the evolution of the design is representative of the changing national identity. 

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In the 1830’s, the concept of a silver coin for use in circulation was still something of an experiment. The U.S. had not yet had a silver coin minted for the purposes of everyday use by citizens. The Gobrecht dollar became that experiment and by 1835 mint officials were ready to give it a try.

They wanted to see how such a coin would be received by the public. The coin gets its name from Philadelphia medalist Christian Gobrecht, who was hired as a last-minute replacement to fulfill the responsibilities of the engraver. After much discussion among Mint director Robert Patterson and Philadelphia artists Titian Peale and Thomas Sully, it was agreed that the design would feature a soaring eagle.

This choice was partially driven by the urge to differentiate the coin from so many other minted pieces featuring the heraldic eagle. When conceptualizing the look of the coin, Gobrecht and others turned to Peter, the Mint’s pet eagle, as inspiration. Sadly, not long after, Peter became caught in a coining press and died. He was preserved by a taxidermist and remains on display at the Mint today.

Gobrecht was provided with rough concept sketches and tasked with turning those ideas into final etchings. By October of 1835, his copper engravings were complete. This work would be used to generate a series of prints to be distributed to government officials for approval. Soon after, Gobrecht and others received the authorization to move forward and begin creating the dies. Soon thereafter,  Mint officials solicited the opinions of the general public.

The following year, Chief Coiner Adam Eckfeldt began striking the production dies. One of the last changes to the piece came from Patterson, who required that the design include “C. GOBRECHT F” to illustrate that Gobrecht was the artist of the work. The first pieces were struck in December 1836.

The design was praised, but many reviewers didn’t like the decision to include Gobrecht’s name and suggested that it be removed. Soon after, even Gobrecht himself requested that his name be removed from the coin. Instead, Patterson decided that Gobrecht’s name would remain but that the size would be reduced and that the placement would change.

As production began Congress started to change the composition standards for silver coins and required that all silver pieces must consist of 90% silver rather than the 89.2% previously required. As a result, 1,000 Gobrecht coins struck in 1836 were 89.2% silver, and 600 were 90% silver. In the following years other design changes would emerge. The 1838 versions removed the stars from the reverse. Some of the coins struck that same year did not include Gobrecht’s initials.

The total minting of the coins throughout their entire run was only about 1,900 pieces. When production ended the Mint began producing the Seated Liberty dollar which used the same obverse design. Today the coins are highly sought after for their unique place in history during a time of transition, as the U.S. Mint was still exploring ways to introduce art into the economics of currency.

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What do Virgil Brand, Louis Eliasberg and Bob Simpson have in common?

They each amassed some of the finest known numismatic collections in American history.

In case you are unfamiliar with him, Bob Simpson is co-chairman of the Texas Rangers baseball team, a philanthropist and a co-founder of XTO Energy, a natural gas firm acquired by ExxonMobile in 2010.

Simpson, now 73 years old, wasn’t wealthy when he began collecting coins as a young boy.

While other kids his age were collecting baseball cards, he would go to the bank, get a roll of coins and look for interesting coins. He was searching for Mercury dimes – the most famous, the 1916-Ds, were still being found in bank rolls back then. He also kept an eye out for copper pennies and Walking Liberty half-dollars.

Recently, Simpson has been selling off portions of his legendary numismatic collection. He views himself as a steward of these remarkable rarities and said recently it is time for someone else to enjoy them.

“I think coins should be appreciated almost as artwork,” Simpson told the Fort Worth Business press last month. “I have gotten more than enough joy from them.”

Simpson’s collection, which is legendary in coin collecting circles, contains remarkable rarities with a particular focus on U.S. patterns. He purchased several large pattern collections over a period of years, spending more than $36 million on a single pattern collection in 2007. Notably, Simpson was the first person to ever assemble a complete P-D-S set of bronze-planchet 1943 Lincoln cents. That includes a 1943-S bronze cent that he paid $1 million for in 2012.

Blanchard recently offered a proof 1910 Gold $2.5 Indian Head, which was part of Bob Simpson’s incredible collection.

The $2.50 Gold Indian Head, or Quarter Eagle was minted at the Philadelphia Mint and only 682 proofs were struck in 1910.

You may already know the Gold Eagle was our country’s first gold coin series. The base denomination of a Gold Eagle represents $10 and other issues are referred to as Double Eagles ($20), Half Eagles ($5), and these Indian Head Gold Quarter Eagle coins with a $2.50 face value.

After the Gold Eagle and Double Eagles were released into circulation in 1907, the U.S. Mint began planning the Quarter Eagle. The Indian Head Quarter Eagle was minted from 1908 through 1929.

The Quarter Eagle broke new ground in the coinage community as the design has no raised edge; instead the legends are presented in sunken relief below the surface of the coin. To this day, these pieces are the only U.S. circulating coins with recessed designs.

Boston sculptor Bela Lyon Pratt designed the visually stunning and unusual coin which features a portrait of a Native American Indian on the obverse, and an American bald eagle standing on a cluster of arrows with an olive branch wrapped around them on the reverse.

Simpson’s views on coin collecting

In an interview this past winter, Simpson was asked if he viewed coin collecting as risky?

“I viewed it as the opposite, as a haven more than a risk asset,” Simpson said.

Simpson admitted that his favorite coin is the “1920-S $10 gold piece, probably the finest $10 Indian piece in the world. It’s in the set I’m going to keep. But, again, the price was painful. I learned a long time ago that the best usually comes at a price that hurts. And so, I would tell anybody, if you see the opportunity that’s unique to you, it’s probably going to hurt to buy it, but you’ll never regret it.”

“You can always get more money, but some of these opportunities, you can’t produce another one. That’s what I would share, that wisdom with potential buyers,” Simpson told the magazine.

[Collector’s question: What is a proof? A proof coin is one that is struck at least twice with specially prepared dies and planchets, and under higher-than-normal pressure to ensure a full, sharp strike. Proof coins are more scarce and tend to be more valuable than other rare coins, drawing special attention from investors and collectors.]

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In early 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt made it a priority to update and improve the look of U.S. coinage. However, there were constraints that prevented even the president from getting what he wanted. An earlier 1890 act of Congress made it a requirement that all U.S coins remain in circulation for a minimum of 25 years before they became eligible for a redesign. However, within the verbiage of that act was a path forward for the president; Congress was empowered to authorize a change which would allow for an exception to the rule. As a result, the five-cent and the silver dollar pieces both became exception cases.

The Mint began seeking new designs for the nickel. American sculptor James Earle Fraser advocated for a new look, with one side of the nickel featuring a Native American, and the other a bison. In addition to this imagery, it was decided early in the process that the design would be free of any elements that were not required. Therefore, the words “In God We Trust” were omitted from the coin.

The Mint issued the first coins to Native American chiefs. Then in early March 1913, the coins were released into circulation. The design earned early praise for expressing imagery that is uniquely American. Some, like the New York Times criticized the way in which the design would quickly deteriorate as it flowed through the natural course of circulation. Despite these comments, the coin enjoyed a massive issuance in the tens of millions of pieces.

As with any coin distributed in such numbers, there were some unforeseen problems, one of which has become infamously known as the 1937-D “three-legged” nickel. In this version, one of the buffalo’s legs is missing. The error was a result of alterations made to the die used in the Denver Mint. The pressman was attempting to clean portions of the reverse die that had resulted in both dies coming in repeated contact with one another. The unintended result of this work was that one leg was nearly erased from the die.

Officials did not notice the mistake until the coin had already been struck thousands of times. Many of the three-legged pieces found their way into circulation before production was halted. As expected, collectors were intrigued and, to this day, seek this error version of the coin.

In the years since the die error, the Buffalo Nickel has enjoyed a legendary status for both the uniqueness of the missing leg and its rarity. The image of a Native American remains one of the most powerful characteristics of the coin due, in large part to the work and detail Fraser put into the piece. In fact, this coin was the last one to feature a Native American until the Sacagawea dollar minted in 2000. In previous remarks Fraser noted that the profile of the Native American on the coin was a composite of Iron Tail of the Ogala Lakota, and Two Moons of the Cheyenne.

The coin is 75% copper and 25% nickel and was minted from 1913 to 1938.

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