1820 Capped Head Left Half Eagle. BD-2. Rarity-5+. Square-Base 2. MS-63 (PCGS). CAC.

1820 Capped Head Left Half Eagle. BD-2. Rarity-5+. Square-Base 2. MS-63 (PCGS). CAC.，This splendid half eagle has lustrous medium gold surfaces and a lively satin finish that includes faint semi-reflectivity in the fields. The strike is full over even the most intricate design elements and the coin offers premium Choice quality through and through.<p>The dies for half eagles of 1820 used two different logotypes for the numeral 2. The four die combinations (three obverses and four different reverses) known for the Square-Base 2 variety all used large letter punches. These four die pairs were responsible for coining roughly half the 263,806 half eagles reported struck in 1820. This is a respectable mintage figure for the era that belies the true rarity of the issue. Since Congress specified a gold to silver ratio of 15 to 1, when the price of gold rose on the world market, the intrinsic value of these early half eagles exceeded the face value, leading to widespread hoarding. Once in the hands of speculators, these coins were sold overseas for a profit and eventually melted, explaining the overall paucity of early gold coins. The Capped Head Left half eagle is one of the rarest types. With rankings that range from Rarity-5 to Rarity-7+, no variety of the 1820-dated issue can be considered common. Only 20 to 25 examples are believed extant for the BD-2 die pair, and the present example is among the finest that we have ever offered. This extraordinary opportunity is not likely to be repeated any time in the near future.<p>，From the A.J. Vanderbilt Collection. Earlier from our (Stacks) sale of the Dr. Conway A. Bolt Collection, April 1966, lot 918. Lot tag included.，