We are pleased to offer for consideration this rare $5 Liberty head half eagle from 1844. U.S. gold specialist David Akers writes of the 1844 $5 gold piece, "This date is not as common as the 1843 or 1847 and is moderately rare in all grades. Most known specimens are well worn and AU or uncirculated examples are surprisingly rare." Thus this specimen, graded MS62, is "surprisingly rare."

      Here's an interesting aside for collectors: the Liberty head half eagles were the only coin to be struck at every single U.S. mint! So, if you would like to put together a type set of Liberty head $5 half eagles, then a great project would be to acquire one of each minted in Philadelphia, Charlotte, Dahlonega, New Orleans, San Francisco, Carson City, and Denver! Imagine putting together that unique set of seven coins from seven different mints. Wouldn't that be a great numismatic accomplishment?

      Discussing the design found upon the Liberty Head half eagle, numismatic scholar and art critic Cornelius Vermeule writes, "Gobrecht executed new designs (1838) for the $10 denomination in gold, a coin known as an eagle. The bust of Liberty with an inscribed coronet in her hair that graced the obverse was to remain on the gold coinage until 1908. The reverse differed little from the design in use since 1807 on the $5 gold piece save that the wings of the eagle spread from one edge of the coin to the other. On the $5 gold piece, or half eagle ... this sober yet young and sympathetic head of Liberty was to vary only in details of tresses on the neck or strands of pearls in the bun on the back of the head."