Liberty Head Half Eagles 1839-1908

Christian Gobrecht's Liberty Head, or Coronet Head, reached the half eagle in 1839, a year after it first appeared on the $10 eagle. It replaced William Kneass's Classic Head and stayed on the coin until 1908.

The weight it was struck at went back to 1834. Gold coins had become worth more than their face value and were being hoarded or melted instead of spent. The Act of June 28, 1834, in force from August 1, cut the half eagle to 8.36 grams at a fineness of .8992 and narrowed it to 22.5 mm. By the time of Gobrecht's coin the alloy was 90% gold and 10% copper. The first Liberty Head half eagles of 1839 kept the 22.5 mm size and placed the Charlotte and Dahlonega mint marks on the obverse. In 1840 the diameter was cut to 21.6 mm, which is the size for the rest of the series, and the mint mark moved to the reverse. Doug Winter notes that the Mint kept adjusting the design until 1843.

Branch mints carried the half eagle across the country. Charlotte, North Carolina, and Dahlonega, Georgia, were set up to coin gold from the Southern mines and struck Liberty half eagles from 1839 until 1861, when both closed. The Confederacy seized Dahlonega that year, and NGC estimates that 1,000 to 2,000 of the 1861-D coins were made under Confederate control, on top of 1,597 struck before. New Orleans struck half eagles from 1840 through 1857 and again from 1892 to 1894. San Francisco received its dies on March 15, 1854 and made its first delivery on April 19, which included 268 half eagles. Carson City began on March 1, 1870 and struck its last half eagles in 1893, and Denver made them in its first two years of coinage, 1906 and 1907. No other U.S. gold type was struck at all seven mints.

In 1866 the Mint put the motto IN GOD WE TRUST on the reverse, above the eagle. San Francisco struck 9,000 half eagles that year from the old dies before switching to the new ones; all of Philadelphia's 1866 coins have the motto.

The Civil War and its aftermath kept output low at Philadelphia. Specie payments stopped at the end of 1861, and Philadelphia struck only 1,270 business-strike half eagles in 1865 and 200 in 1875. In 1887 it struck only proofs. From the 1880s on, mintages at Philadelphia and San Francisco often ran into the millions. In 1908 Bela Lyon Pratt's Indian Head design, sunk into the surface of the coin, replaced the Liberty Head, so both designs carry that date.

Obverse. Liberty faces left wearing a coronet inscribed LIBERTY, her hair tied up at the back with a beaded cord and two locks falling down her neck. Thirteen six-pointed stars circle the border, with the date below.

Reverse. An eagle, wings spread and a shield on its breast, holds an olive branch and three arrows. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA runs around the edge, broken by the wing tips, and the value FIVE D. is at the bottom. From 1866 the motto IN GOD WE TRUST sits above the eagle.

Mint mark. On the reverse, below the eagle and above FIVE D., from 1840 on. On the 1839-C and 1839-D it is on the obverse, between the portrait and the date. Philadelphia coins have none. D is Dahlonega through 1861 and Denver in 1906-1907.

Telling the types apart.

Things that cause confusion.

• Classic Head or Liberty Head. The 1834-1838 Classic Head reverse gives the value as 5 D.; the Liberty Head spells it FIVE D.
• 1840 Broad Mill and Narrow Mill. Coins of 1840 come in the old 22.5 mm size and the new 21.6 mm size. Garrett and Guth report every 1840-C as broad mill and every 1840-D they have seen as narrow mill; the 1840-O exists both ways.
• Letter sizes on the 1842 and 1843-O. The Large Letters reverse has its legend spaced more tightly around the rim.
• Green gold. Gold from the Charlotte and Dahlonega mines held natural silver, sometimes up to 5%, so some of those coins have a greenish color.
• Indian Head. The 1908-1929 half eagle has a sunken design and an Indian in a feathered headdress. A 1908 half eagle can be either type.

• 1854-S: 268 struck from a single pair of dies, probably in one day, NGC thinks. NGC and Doug Winter count four known, the fourth found in 2018; CoinWeek's guide still says three.
• 1875: 200 business strikes, beside 20 proofs. NGC puts survivors as low as half a dozen and Winter at about ten. NGC notes that on business strikes the base of the 1 falls left of a dentil's center, and on proofs to the right.
• 1887 proof: Philadelphia made no business strikes this year, and NGC gives 87 proofs.
• 1861-C (6,879) and 1861-D (1,597 under U.S. control): the last coins of the two Southern mints. Some 1861-C coins with a late die break through AMERICA may have been struck after the Confederacy took over.
• 1864-S: 3,888 struck by the figure in NGC's notes (its data field says 4,220). NGC doubts more than two dozen survive.
• 1839-C (17,205) and 1839-D (18,939): the only Liberty half eagles with the mint mark on the obverse.
• 1866-S No Motto (9,000) and 1866-S With Motto (34,920): the changeover year at San Francisco. Philadelphia's 1866 has the motto only (6,700).
• Civil War Philadelphia: 1863 (2,442) and 1865 (1,270).
• New Orleans: the 1847-O (12,000, most heavily worn) and, from the 1890s, the 1892-O (10,000).
• 1870-CC: 7,675 struck in Carson City's first year.
• Firsts and lasts: the 1906-D (320,000) was among Denver's first coins, and the 1908 (421,874) is the last Liberty half eagle.

Doug Winter, who wrote the standard books on the Charlotte, Dahlonega and New Orleans mints, finds more varieties in this series than in the other Liberty Head gold coins, most of them from the 1840s. Philadelphia's 1842 comes with Small Letters or Large Letters, as does the 1843-O (Small Letters, Large Letters). Charlotte and Dahlonega both struck a Small Date and a Large Date in 1842 (1842-C Small Date, 1842-C Large Date, 1842-D Small Date, 1842-D Large Date), and Philadelphia did so in 1846 (Small Date, Large Date). The 1846-D has a D punched over another D. Winter counts only two confirmed overdates, the 1881/0 and the 1901/0-S.

• Composition: 90% gold, 10% copper
• Weight: 8.36 grams
• Gold content: 0.2419 troy ounce
• Diameter: 22.5 mm in 1839 and on early 1840 coins; 21.6 mm after
• Edge: reeded
• Designer: Christian Gobrecht

The weight comes from the Coinage Act of 1834 and did not change for the rest of the denomination's life; the 1908 Indian Head kept the same weight, fineness and size. Doug Winter notes that proofs were made only in tiny numbers before 1859 and that none were made in 1908.