1811 Tall 5

The 1811 Tall 5 is the scarcer of the two cataloged reverse varieties for John Reich's Capped Bust Left half eagle that year. The combined 1811 mintage of roughly 99,581 coins was struck from a small group of working dies, and engravers at the Philadelphia Mint used different denomination punches when laying in the "5 D." below the eagle. One reverse received a noticeably taller numeral, the other a shorter one, and Bass-Dannreuther catalogers separated the two pairings as the Tall 5 and Small 5. The Tall 5 turns up less often in survivor counts, especially in the higher grades, which gives it a modest premium over its Small 5 sibling whenever a clean example reaches the market.

Variety attribution lives entirely on the reverse, at the height of the 5 in "5 D." beneath the eagle. The Tall 5 numeral reaches noticeably higher relative to the D and the underlying line of letters, while the Small 5 sits short and squat by comparison. A side-by-side photo or a known-Small-5 reference image makes the call straightforward; on a worn coin, examination under magnification on a Fine or better example is the safer route, because the digit's upper serif is what carries the diagnostic. Authentication checks for the broader 1811 issue start with the published standards: 8.75 grams, about 25.0 millimeters in diameter, 0.9167 fine gold with the balance copper and silver, and a uniformly reeded edge. Cast counterfeits typically miss the crisp reeding and run light or porous; a careful weight check and an edge inspection catch most of them before any variety call is made.

Modern collectors usually approach the 1811 Tall 5 as part of a Capped Bust Left date set or as a paired purchase alongside the Small 5 for a complete 1811 variety showing. Most surviving coins fall in the VF to AU range, and certified Mint State examples are genuinely scarce, with the Tall 5 thinner on the population reports than the Small 5 at every level. Pricing tracks both gold's spot value and the variety premium, so buyers should compare recent auction records for both reverses before committing. For deeper context on the type, denomination history, and the rest of John Reich's gold work, see our Capped Bust Half Eagle series history.