1807 Half Eagle

HBCC#:

3103

Breen#:

6449

BD#:

1

Judd#:

n/a

Pollock#:

n/a

The half eagles of 1806 are plagued with sketchy variety descriptions leading to attribution problems. Those dated 1807, however, are straight forward and easily identified. The Bass Collection contains examples of all six known Draped Bust varieties per Walter Breen’s monograph and his Complete Encyclopedia. This variety has a smaller date on the obverse and smaller stars on the reverse than any other 1807 die marriage. In his 1966 monograph, Walter Breen described this as “the only nearly common 1807 with bust right.”

Provenance:

From Stack's sale of the Gaston DiBello Collection, May 1970, Lot 814.

Obverse:

Reverse:

Commentary:

"Obverse: Bust right. Small date numerals, spaced 1 807. Small stars. Faint cracks from edge to tops of E, R, and T. Crack at top left of Y, running thru stars at right. Rust lump on bust at lower right, above drapery. Reverse: Small stars as used in 1806. Lowest outer leaf (at C) is hollow. Vertical spine from top right point of shield to ribbon. No crack over (I)T. Two spines tip of an inner leaf. Top two berries unattached. One inner, one outer leaf hollow. Crack at bases of AT. Cracks at U and TED."