1929 $5 MS (PCGS#8533)
August 2020 U.S. Coins Auction
- 拍卖行
- Stack's Bowers
- 批号
- 1559
- 等级
- MS61
- 价格
- 158,393
- 详细说明
- Legendary Key Date 1929 Indian Half Eagle
1929 Indian Half Eagle. MS-61 (PCGS).
This is a gorgeous Uncirculated survivor of the fabled 1929 Indian half eagle. Warmly patinated in olive-orange, this is a lustrous coin for the assigned grade with most areas uncommonly smooth for the assigned grade. This final year Indian half eagle issue is an excellent case study in how using the mintage figures of gold coins from the 1920s and 1930s as an accurate predictor of rarity is fraught with great difficulties. In 1916, production of the half eagle was suspended after only 240,000 coins were struck at the San Francisco Mint. It would not be until 1929 that production of this denomination resumed, this time only at the Mint's main facility in Philadelphia. While 662,000 half eagles were struck that year, the nation was in the midst of the economic turmoil that would soon explode into the Great Depression. With gold simply not needed in circulation under such circumstances, very few 1929 half eagles were actually distributed into commercial channels. Virtually the entire mintage languished in Treasury Department coffers until the great coinage melts of 1937, when they went straight into the Mint's crucibles to become ingots. These melts even claimed many of the few examples that had been released into circulation, for most had been returned to the Treasury after the implementation of the Gold Surrender Order in 1933. With so few examples used in everyday commerce, it is little wonder that circulated examples are significantly rarer than their elusive Mint State counterparts.
The 1929 half eagle has long been recognized as the prime rarity in the circulation strike Indian series, and it has captivated dedicated collectors of Bela Lyon Pratt's evocative design for generations. David W. Akers noted nearly 40 years ago that, "If anything exists that is better than MS-65 I have not seen or heard of it." Today, this situation remains as true as it was then; not a single specimen has since surpassed the Gem Mint State level. The present example, solidly in the Mint State category, would serve with distinction in many advanced gold cabinets.
PCGS# 8533. NGC ID: 28E2.
Click here for certification details from PCGS.
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