Numismatic tradition accepts a mintage of 900 coins for the 1798/7 Stars 9x4 eagle, based on Breen's assertion that the 900 eagles delivered on February 17, 1798, were the only examples produced from this die pairing. Since 80 to 100 coins are believed extant from this die marriage, however, Dannreuther asserts that the mintage of this variety was likely on the order of 1,200 to 1,600 coins, some of which were undoubtedly delivered on and/or after February 28, 1798.

Although the rarity of this date has been overstated in the past (Breen, for one, estimated that only 31 to 33 1798/7 eagles of both varieties were extant), this issue still ranks as the second scarcest in the early eagle series after the final year 1804 Crosslet 4. BD-1 is the more readily available of the two varieties of this issue. The 1798 as an issue is significant as the first in the early eagle series to feature overdate dies, both obverses having the digit 8 cut over a 7. It is also significant as the first in its series with 13 stars on the obverse, and clearly both obverse dies were prepared after the Mint abandoned the idea of adding a star for each new state that joined the Union.

After Tennessee's admission brought the requisite number of stars under that plan to 16, overcrowding of the design clearly became a problem, leading to the decision to feature only 13 stars in honor of the original 13 states. Mint employees initially experimented with the arrangement of the 13 stars on the obverse dies of the eagle, with the two 1798/7 varieties displaying different arrangements of 9x4 and 7x6, respectively. In the end, neither of those arrangements were accepted for long term use, as the Mint instead decided on the 8x5 arrangement for all remaining Capped Bust Right eagles beginning with the 1799-dated coins. As such, the 1798/7 BD-1, with its 9x4 star arrangement, is unique in the early eagle series and represents a must-have variety for the serious gold type collector.

The example to the left was sold by Stack's Bowers Galleries in the D. Brent Pogue Part II Auction, where it realized $258,500.