1792 Washington President Getz Pattern - Small Eagle Half Dollar

Coin Details

Auction Record

$1,740,000 • AU58 • 08-2018 • Stack's Bowers

Description

Cataloged as Baker 24, Musante GW-24, Whitman 10695, and PCGS #925, this 1792 Washington Getz Pattern half dollar features the small eagle reverse paired with the WASHINGTON PRESIDENT obverse legend. Peter Getz of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, prepared these pattern coins as proposals for United States half dollar coinage during the critical year when the Coinage Act of April 2, 1792, established the framework for American money. The small eagle reverse displays a naturalistic eagle with outspread wings — a more modest, organic rendering compared to the heraldic eagle used on other Getz half dollar dies — reflecting one of the competing artistic approaches to eagle imagery that would eventually become the defining motif of American coinage. The WASHINGTON PRESIDENT obverse legend directly engaged the contentious political debate over whether to place the sitting president's portrait on the nation's coins, a practice Washington himself reportedly opposed as too reminiscent of European monarchical traditions. Extremely rare as one of the most important early American pattern coins, the small eagle Getz half dollar documents the intersection of artisan craftsmanship, political debate, and monetary policy that characterized the birth of the United States Mint. Getz's Lancaster workshop operated independently of the fledgling Philadelphia Mint, and his patterns represent a private proposal competing against designs produced by the Mint's own engravers for the honor of defining American coinage design.

Rarity Notes

Extremely rare. One of the most important early American pattern coins.

Cross References

Baker 24; Musante GW-24; Whitman 10695