While any 1819 half eagle is a great rarity, the so-called “normal reverse” is rarer still, representing roughly one third of all known specimens. The varieties of 1819 half eagles have been miscataloged for decades. The Wide Date, 5D/50 marriage, Bass Dannreuther-1, is easy to recognize and understand. When the Bass-Dannreuther book was published, this variety was the only other die marriage known to either Bass or Dannreuther, correcting years of misinformation promulgated by Walter Breen following his 1966 monograph. It marries a Close Date obverse to a Normal reverse, two different dies than were used on BD-1. In 2014, a cleaned and plugged specimen was identified as the product of a previously unknown reverse; the new die marriage is now known as Bass Dannreuther-3.

Saul Teichman’s work on rare half eagles has found just five discrete examples of this die marriage, noting in a privately distributed document detailing his work that “this is apparently much rarer than people realize.” The fifth example he cited, the coin sold in the 1922 Ten Eyck sale, appears to bear a strong resemblance to the Harry Bass Foundation coin, the only example Bass ever found, which would thereby reduce the population to just four known specimens. Of these, two are circulated and show problems that would preclude the assignment of a numerical certified grade. The D. Brent Pogue specimen is the only example from these dies to have been certified by PCGS.

The example to the left was sold by Stack's Bowers Galleries in the D. Brent Pogue Part III Auction, where it realized $141,000.