DOUBLE LETTERED EDGE 1827 Capped Bust, WHAT A FIND!

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History:

Many of the most special Capped Bust half dollars in the Pogue Collection trace their provenance to Louis Eliasberg. Many of the most special Capped Bust half dollars in the Eliasberg Collection trace their provenance, via John H. Clapp, to George Earle, whose 1912 collection sale set new standards for both cataloging excellence and total price realized. A few of the most special Capped Bust half dollars in existence were once part of all three of these great collections, and this spectacular Proof ranks high among this select group. The surfaces are boldly reflective, with majestic contrast between the fields and the devices. Ancient gold toning, accrued over generations, dominates both sides, while highlights of blue and rose gather inside the rims. Cartwheel luster is seen in indirect light, but direct light elicits a beam of unmistakable reflectivity, a finish that must have been highly satisfying to the dedicated and purposeful coiners at work at the Philadelphia Mint the day this was made in 1827. The central design elements are precisely struck and fully detailed, rendering visible rarely-seen aspects like the feathers on the arrow fletching and the veins on the olive leaves, even without the benefit of magnification. Each star but star 1 shows a fully raised sculptural center, and the denticles show substantial length and rounded relief as well. Very few reminders of contact have found their way onto this coin since its production, just some wispy hairlines, two light lines oriented mostly vertically on Liberty’s cheek, and a tiny speck at the tip of Liberty’s chin. Vertically oriented die polish lines are visible in the reverse field, as are finish lines among the olive leaves and beyond the bust truncation. Areas of frost outside of the bust tip and the top of Liberty’s head show the sort of finishing that was applied to give the central portion of the die such pleasing contrast.

While in some ways this is just a half dollar from 1827, and would have been happily accepted as such were it spent in the years thereafter, this coin is much more than simply a currency object. It is a technological triumph, a statement in metal that the Philadelphia Mint could produce specimens to match the excellence of coins then struck in Europe. It is the product of centuries of preservation and stewardship, an object of consideration and pride since the day it was struck. And now, 188 years after its mintage, it remains in essentially perfect condition, still an object of desire and pride.

American collectors of rare coins were few in 1827, but they were not non-existent. The fable of Joseph J. Mickley acquiring four newly struck Proof quarters at the United States Mint in 1827, along with the fictional corollary that he must likewise be the source of other Proof 1827 coins, invents a falsehood and at the same time masks a truth. Mickley had a number of contemporaries who would have desired and avidly collected Proof coinage struck this year. He was not the first person to care, nor was he alone in his interest in such things. Some of the names are familiar to modern scholars, people like Dr. James Mease, Matthew Stickney, and Robert Gilmor, Jr., while others are obscure or unknown altogether. As rare as Proof coins from the 1820s are, a piece like this need not have been a presentation coin struck for a VIP or an experiment by Mint personnel to see just how perfect a coin they could strike. It could easily have been made to order for a pioneering collector, one who, based upon this coin’s state of preservation, positively cherished it.

There appear to be three Proof specimens of 1827 Overton-121. One is the Proof-66 CAM (PCGS) Norweb coin. Though provenance to Joseph Mickley is seemingly fictional as often as not, the Norweb coin is indeed the piece included in lot 1706 of W. Elliot Woodward’s 1867 Mickley sale. The buyer of the lot, a three-piece 1827 Proof set including a half dollar, quarter, and dime, is identified in named Mickley catalogs as “Reakert.” Mrs. Norweb purchased her coin directly from the little-known 1962 dispersal sale of the Reichert (also spelled Reakirt) Collection, along with the 1827 quarter from the Mickley sale. The 1827 Proof dime from that lot apparently went elsewhere. The second Proof 1827 O-121 is graded Proof-66 (PCGS), formerly offered in Auction ’83, Auction ’90, and most recently in the August 2011 Heritage sale. This is the third. At Proof-67, it is the finest of the pieces certified. A final example, graded Proof-64 by NGC, does not seem to carry its Proof credentials as well, having sold for $129,900 in 2001; compare this price to the $210,000 sum this example realized in 1997. That piece has not been graded as Proof by PCGS. One final Proof 1827 half dollar, an O-107, is certified Proof-64 by PCGS.

Breen notes that both Howard R. Newcomb sales of 1945 included a Proof 1827 half dollar, but since neither catalog is illustrated, an invoice or named copy of the sale would be required to prove the Proof status or provenance of either (or, even, to prove they weren’t the same coin). Lot 512 in the 1895 Richard A. Winsor sale was described with identical language as lot 2927 in the 1912 Earle sale, suggesting that the Earle-Eliasberg-Pogue specimen is the Winsor coin; alas, that lot was not included among the lots illustrated on the Winsor sale’s fine plates.

As special as this half dollar is by virtue of its history and rarity, its state of preservation serves to further increase its importance. It was lauded as a “sharp, even impression” and a “superb example” by Henry Chapman in the 1912 Earle sale, meager compliments, perhaps, but more than he lavished on most other gems sold in this era. Sold as an uncertified gem in the 1997 Eliasberg sale, this piece so astounded the graders at NGC that it was first certified as Proof-68 by that firm. It was similarly well received at PCGS, who extended the highest grade ever offered to a Proof Capped Bust half dollar of any date. While this coin is alone atop the PCGS Population Report at the Proof-67 level, the numbers are essentially meaningless in the face of the unanimous qualitative conclusion that this is the finest surviving Proof Capped Bust half dollar in private hands.

From the D. Brent Pogue Collection

Publications: Breen, Walter. Walter Breen’s Encyclopedia of United States and Colonial Proof Coins 1722-1989, 1989, page 46.

Provenance: George H. Earle, Jr. Collection; Henry Chapman’s sale of the George H. Earle, Jr. Collection, June 1912, lot 2927; John H. Clapp Collection; John H. Clapp Estate, 1940; Louis E. Eliasberg, Sr. Collection, by sale, en bloc, via Stack’s, 1942; Richard A. Eliasberg, by descent, 1976; Bowers and Merena’s sale of the Louis E. Eliasberg, Sr. Collection, April 1997, lot 1831; Heritage’s sale of January 2004, lot 2078; Ira and Larry Goldberg Auctioneers’ sale of February 2006, lot 1468.

Est. $200,000-$250,000