1869 $5 Liberty Head Half Eagle PCGS XF45

True rarity in the popular Liberty Head half eagle series—with less than 100 survivors!

Here’s a rare treasure to add to your collection. Gold specialist David Akers writes, “The 1869 has one of the lowest mintages in the series and the date is just as rare as that low mintage implies. There are not all that many specimens known in any condition, but the typically available 1869 is EF or AU with proof-like or partially proof-like surfaces.”

The Second Philadelphia Mint, where this rarity was struck in 1869. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

The Philadelphia Mint only produced miniscule amounts of half eagles from 1862 to 1877. Such small productions were intended to flatten speculation on gold proof sets of the day, and the demands of commerce in the East were met with Federal paper currency. A mere 1,760 of the 1869 fives were struck, most of which were ignored by numismatists before the 1890s. Rare in any grade, only 38 have been graded by PCGS, none of which are mint state.