1868 Liberty Head $5 Half Eagle

1868 Liberty Head $5 half eagle gold coins were produced at the Philadelphia and San Francisco (S) mints. This two-mint tag team, which started after the southern mints in Charlotte, Dahlonega, and New Orleans ceased federal coin production beginning with the 1862 striking year, would continue through the remainder of the 1860s.

Here’s a glance at the mintages and values of 1868 $5 Liberty Head half eagle gold coins:

• 1868, 5,700 minted; $860

• 1868-S, 52,000; $860

• 1868 proof, 25; $25,000

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

Generally speaking, mintage figures above don’t reflect the current surviving population of 1868 half eagles; this is important to remember when looking at the mintage figures for any old coins. While mintage figures are informative and certainly enhance the academic numismatic understanding of a given year for a said coin in a series, mintage figures are often far higher than the number of survivors of the same coin. This is especially true with 19th century gold coins, which were melted in large numbers in later years.

For the record, 1868 $5 half eagles contain a net total of 0.24187 ounces pure gold per coin, which is a substantial figure indeed. An interesting side not about 1868 Liberty Head $5 gold half eagles is that they were designed by Christian Gobrecht, who served as the third Chief Engraver of the United States Mint. He also designed the Seated Liberty silver coinage of the 19th century.