1862 $5 Liberty Head Half Eagle PCGS AU58 - Civil War Era Gold!

Writes gold specialist Doug Winter, "I’d rank Civil War gold as one of the more popular ultra-specialties in American numismatics." And besides being quite popular, this issue is one of the great rarities of business strike fives from the Philadelphia Mint. Out of its tiny mintage of 4,430, PCGS has graded 7 as AU58 with only 6 finer (MS62 is the finest!). PCGS tells us that there are less than 100 pieces known of this issue.

Heritage Auctions writes of this issue: "production of P-mint half eagles through double eagles from this Civil War year was well below traditional levels. To illustrate this decrease, business strike fives were reduced from more than 688,000 pieces in 1861 to a mere 4,430 business strikes in 1862. This limited production of half eagles at the Philadelphia facility would continue until after Reconstruction. The average grade of surviving '62-P fives indicates that most saw extensive commercial use, with pieces grading XF or lower being far more prevalent than higher graded examples. Known Mint State pieces can be counted on one hand."