1851-O $5 Liberty Head Half Eagle NGC AU58

It was after a four-year break that the New Orleans mint once began mintage of the half eagle in 1851. After production of the 1851 ended, there was another hiatus of three years. This is a scarce and curiously overlooked half eagle issue from our Southern mint. There are about 125-150 examples known to exist today in the 21^st century; most of those are graded VF to XF. This issue is rare in all grades. Doug Winter writes, “It is rare in AU and it becomes very rare in the higher range of this grade.” Similar to other New Orleans’ half eagles from the 1850s, the 1851-O is very rare in mint state. NGC has graded 24 as AU58 with a mere 4 finer.

The New Orleans Mint, where this rarity was struck in 1851.