Stack’s Bowers Galleries’ Coin Resource Center includes entries on most of the Capped Bust Left half eagle series at time of writing. This column will focus on the entries for two major varieties for the 1812 date, Wide 5D and Close 5D, cataloged as BD-1 and -2 respectively. The mintage for the date falls in the middle range for the series.
A single obverse die was paired with the two different reverse dies, resulting in two varieties, differentiated most obviously by the position of the characters in the denomination on the reverse. The BD-2, Close 5D is the rarer of the two varieties.
The entries address the varieties’ history, rarity, and collectability. High-quality images, links to recent auction results for the date and Coins in Motion animations are included. Readers who may have an example of the 1812 half eagles, or any other collectible coins included in the CRC, are welcome to contact our staff using the links on the entries. Knowledgeable readers are encouraged to submit appropriate edits through the links on the pages, if they find any information that needs to be updated.
The CRC is an evolving database. More information and entries will be added in the future.
