1891 Liberty Head $5 Half Eagle

1891 Liberty Head half eagles were made at the Philadelphia and Carson City (CC) mints. While Carson City usually held the distinction of being a low-output mint, that facility beat out Philadelphia once again, just as it had in 1890. A major point to remember about this is the San Francisco mint wasn’t producing half eagles at the time, and gold coins were in high demand in the West.

Here’s a look at the mintages and values of 1891 $5 Liberty Head half eagle gold coins:

• 1891, 61,360 minted; $787

• 1891-CC, 208,000; $1,217

• 1891 proof, 53; $13,500

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

While the Carson City Mint outpaced Philadelphia in terms of mintages, Philly business-strikes are now the least expensive of the various issues from that year. Now, the 1891-CC Liberty Head half eagle is considerably scarce and is a major collector coin.

It’s important to remember that while Liberty Head half eagles are indeed gold coins, they really are not “bullion” coins and are rather viewed as numismatic collectibles. For the record, Liberty Head half eagles were designed by Christian Gobrecht and contain 0.24187 ounces of gold.