RARE AND NUMISMATICALLY SIGNIFICANT PATTERN

This attractively designed pattern issue was made on a larger planchet; the mint purposely employed an eagle-sized planchet to strike a half eagle. The reason for this was to combat counterfeiting which occurred when gold half eagles were sliced in half edgewise and replaced with a lesser value metal. While I’ve never seen an example of, say, an 1859 half eagle which had been subjected to numismatic surgery, it was enough of a problem that we are left with two types of thin planchet 1860-dated half eagles. This includes the excessively rare 1860 J-271, which is the exact design of the J-272 but struck in gold. The better of the two known—a PCGS/CAC PR64+ DCAM—sold for a record-setting $1,140,000 in the 2024 Heritage FUN auction.

I personally love the funky Anthony Paquet design with the portrait on the obverse facing left and embellished with three ill-fitting stars attached to the Phrygian Cap. On the reverse, the eagle is way too small and the V in FIVE is actually an inverted A punch.

The coin itself has wonderful natural faded mint red and brown hues on the obverse along with a deep brown reverse showing flashes of electric blue and some contrasting purple within the reverse lettering. A single light line on the obverse running from the base of Liberty’s hair down through the 86 in the date is likely the sole reason this lovely coin is not in a full 65 holder.

A PCGS/CAC PR65 BR sold for $14,100 as Legend 10/2021: 568, while an NGC PR64 which had been Gilted brought $8,225 as Heritage 2015 ANA: 4569.

A high-end example of this under-researched issue.

Ex Heritage 5/2023: 4930, where it sold for $9,600, Bob Simpson Collection. Heritage 9/2020: 10187 at $8,400. 

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