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Captain John's Eagle (Newly discovered 1797 Eagle)

RussHJBRussHJB Posts: 20 ✭✭✭
in U.S. Coin Forum

I had a request from someone to share another piece that we recently discovered. I won't give a full write up as I've already submitted the story to a major publication but here is the story in a nut shell.

A middle aged couple walked into our Chicago store front with a few coins to sell. They pulled out a couple of ugly large cents, a damaged bust half dollar and finally this 1797 Eagle. The coin was raw and no collector or numismatist had seen it for at least 75 years. We asked for the story of the piece and this is what we got from the very talented former owner of the piece.

"John was a teenage boy living in New Jersey in the early nineteenth-century (born 1793 and died 1861); John ran away to sea three times. Each time, his father Isaac would bring him home. His father asked a friend (a Swedish sea-captain named Captain Engstrom) to look after him on his next voyage and cure him of his fancy for a life at sea. Isaac gave his son John three ten-dollar gold pieces so that John might buy a present for each of his sisters while on the voyage. John earned enough on the voyage so that he was able to buy his sisters gifts with his earnings and he always kept the gold coins as mementos. John later became Captain John and for two centuries his sword was passed down through my family along with the three pieces of gold to the next relative named after him. Captain John only gave up the sea when his sister Rebecca's husband died, and he needed to help her care for her son--also named Isaac. Isaac later had a daughter, whom he named Rebecca after his mother. Rebecca became a dear friend and patron of the poet Walt Whitman. There has been a long history in my family of both teenagers running away either to sea or to become poets or painters. The story of Captain John was always shared to illustrate the wisdom of not trying to control your children or direct them in their pursuit of a career--not because the parents weren't often correct in fearing the terrible fates that awaited their children who made difficult choices--but because you can't stop them, anyway. And, often even a very young child already knows their future. The best thing a parent can do is share whatever gold they have and wave from the shore as the ship sails and the adventure begins."

The coin graded out as AU55 and has been blessed with a green CAC sticker. It has since been placed with an advanced early gold collector.

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