1849 Liberty Head $5 Half Eagle

1849 Liberty Head $5 half eagle gold coins were made at the Philadelphia, Charlotte (C), and Dahlonega (D) mints. In all, there are three basic varieties of 1849 Liberty Head half eagles, corresponding to the three different mint issues. All 1849 Liberty Head half eagles are considered scarce, though the Charlotte and Dahlonega issues are by far scarcer today than the Philadelphia coin. This is due to much lower mintages for the two branch mint issues, and the fact that very few of the Charlotte and Dahlonega coins were saved. This has resulted in there being very few survivors, with just a fraction of the original mintage existing today.

Below is a breakdown of the mintages and values for 1849 $5 half eagle gold coins:

• 1849, 133,070 minted; $843

• 1849-C, 64,823; $2,000

• 1849-D, 39,036; $2,000

*Values are for coins grading Very Fine 20.

Christian Gobrecht designed 1849 Liberty Head half eagles. Attuned numismatists will note that Gobrecht also designed the silver Liberty Seated coinage of the 19th century, which certainly reigns as his most popular creation. Because of their age and overall scarceness in the coin market today, Liberty Head half eagles are historically significant and carry high price premiums over the value of their intrinsic gold content; for the record, Liberty Head $5 coins contain 0.24187 net ounces of pure gold.