1857-C $5 Liberty Head Half Eagle NGC AU55 "Rarity from Charlotte Mint"

It is with pleasure that we at AUCM offer for your consideration a rarity from the Charlotte mint, an 1857-C $5 Liberty half eagle graded NGC AU55. Here's an interesting fact for numismatists: Did you know that the Liberty head half eagles were the only coins to be struck at every single U.S. mint? So, if you would like to put together a 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! You can mix rare with more common issues, or focus solely upon the former or the latter. Imagine putting together a unique set of seven gold coins from seven different mints. Wouldn't that be a great numismatic feather in your cap?

Many do not know it, but there was a Southern Gold Rush in the United States. Significant amounts of gold were mined in the South, mostly in Georgia and the Carolinas. Even though gold was discovered in North Carolina in 1799 and mined there in the early 1800s, the Southern Gold Rush did not begin until around 1838. "In the 1820s, a series of gold strikes from Virginia to Alabama caused such excitement that thousands of miners from all parts of the United States poured into the region," writes David Williams in his book, The Georgia Gold Rush (1995). Late 1829 saw northern Georgia, the land belonging to the Cherokee Nation, flooded with thousands of prospectors smitten with gold fever. Several mines were in operation in northern Georgia in 1830. These gold reserves inspired the establishment of three U.S. branch mints in 1838: Dahlonega (GA), Charlotte (NC), and New Orleans (LA). The Southern Gold Rush is generally considered to have taken place from 1828 to 1836.