Did you know that when Stack’s Bowers Galleries and Sotheby’s sold the finest known 1798 Small Eagle half eagle–graded AU-55 (PCGS) and from the D. Brent Pogue Collection—it set a new world record for any 18th century half eagle?. The King Farouk-D. Brent Pogue specimen, one of just six known, made headlines in 1912 when it sold in Henry Chapman’s George H. Earle, Jr. Collection sale for $3,000, a world record for any coin struck at the United States Mint. Estimated at $550,000 to $750,000, the coin opened at $650,000 and saw dramatically escalating bidding before setting a new record at $1,175,000, more than double the previous record for a $5 coin of the 1790s.
