1860 Liberty Head $5 Half Eagle

In 1860, Liberty Head $5 half eagle gold coins were made at the Philadelphia, Charlotte (C), Dahlonega (D), and San Francisco (S) mints. Each mint struck less than 22,000 half eagles that year, making it one of the lowest-production years for the $5 gold coin during which four different minting facilities struck the denomination.

Here’s a rundown of the mintages and values of the 1860 $5 Liberty Head half eagle gold coins:

• 1860, 19,763 minted; $985

• 1860-C, 14,813; $2,000

• 1860-D, 14,635; $2,250

• 1860-S, 21,200; $2,000

• 1860 proof; 62; $40,000

*Values are for coins grading Very Fine 20 unless otherwise stated.

As is typical for 19th-century branch mint pieces, far fewer examples exist today of those issues than were originally minted. Many have been melted, though few of these coins were saved to begin with, as most collectors tended to save Philadelphia issues instead of branch mint coins, for whatever reason.

1860 half eagles are quite scarce and are historically significant, thus they are worth more as numismatic collectibles than as gold bullion coins, per se. These pieces do indeed contain a significant amount of gold, at 0.24187 net ounces of pure gold per coin, but their price premiums are far higher than many gold investors would be willing to pay for the less-than-quarter ounce of gold content.

An interesting footnote about the 1860 $5 gold half eagles is that they were designed by Christian Gobrecht. He is perhaps most well known for designing the 19th-century Seated Liberty silver coinage.