Ex. Lelan Rogers. Sold at public auction by Stacks for $517,000 in the Numisma ’95 Sale, November 29, 1995, lot 1251, where it was described: “1797 O.101a. Gem Brilliant Uncirculated. Very rare: harder to find as a date than even the 1796. Only 3,918 were struck, this mintage comprising the total coined for both years, 1796 and 1797. Both sides show lustre highlights in the fields which make almost complete, unbroken cartwheel lustre. One of the Finest Known, quite possibly a candidate for Finest honors. This specimen is toned in beautiful, iridescent silver gray, pale blue, and rose-gold shades. The strike is sharp in the centers and the left sides of the obverse and reverse (the right statrs are flat, as struck). Struck from the same reverse die used to coin the 1796 Half Dollars, here in a much more advanced state, near to total collapse.”
Ex. Judge Curtis of Delhi, NY, collection (circa 1940’s); earlier; possibly ex Wurtzbach Collection via a Barney Bluestone sale in 1931; privately to Abraham Hepner for $1,600; Estate of Abraham Hepner; privately to Lelan Rogers in October, 1968.
Update: Upon its sale in 1995, this coin was placed in the celebrated D. Brent Pogue collection. 20 years later, on May 19, 2015, when the first part of the Pogue collection was sold at auction in New York City by Stacks/Bowers Galleries in association with Sothebys, the coin, graded PCGS MS-66, brought the astonishing price of $1,527,500!
Image courtesy Stacks
Read the story of the 1796-97 HALF DOLLAR DRAPED BUST SMALL EAGLE
