PCGS CoinFacts™ -1825/4 $5 (Regular Strike)

Since the launch of the new PCGS CoinFacts, we have been hard at work updating and expanding the site's information. Here's another recent example:

David Akers (1975/88): For many years, the 1825/4 was considered to be unique, the lone specimen being the coin in the Louis Eliasberg Collection. Mr. Eliasberg obtained the coin when he bought the extensive John Clapp Collection in the early 1940s for more than $100,000 (an extraordinary price at the time since the entire Dunham Sale in 1941 realized only $83,000). Prior to being in the Clapp Collection, the coin had been sold at the George Earle Sale in 1912 and before that at the 1875 Cohen Sale.

The Eliasberg coin is very choice and has been described in some quarters as a "proof;" however, in my opinion, its "proof" status is questionable. In the summer of 1978 a second specimen appeared on the market. This one, grading VF with several tiny edge marks where it was held by tacks for display on a wall, was offered by RARCOA with the N.M. Kaufman Collection. The coin, after vigorous bidding, sold to Art Kagin for $140,000. Both specimens were struck from the same dies and the overdate is extremely prominent. The reverse of both coins has the center dot that appears on most, if not all, 1825/1 Half Eagles.