1839-C $5 MS(PCGS#8192)

The March 2010 Baltimore Auction

Auctioneer

Bowers & Merena

Lot Number

3739

Grade

MS63

Price

126,500

Lot Description

1839-C Liberty Half Eagle. Winter Variety 1 (1-A), the only known dies. Die State I. MS-63 (NGC). The 1839-C is only the second Charlotte Mint issue in the United States Half Eagle series, and the first of the Liberty type. Of even further significance to specialized collectors is the fact that the 1839-C is the only C-mint Liberty Five that displays the mintmark on the obverse between the truncation of Liberty's neck and the date. In fact, the obverse portrait employed for the 1839-C is unlike that used on any other Charlotte Mint Half Eagle. These features are so profound and unique that we cannot help but describe the 1839-C as a one-year type coin in this Southern gold series.<br />     This is an intricately defined piece, Liberty's portrait and the reverse eagle being particularly sharp in detail. The peripheries are only marginally softer in detail, and then again only over a few of the star centrils on the obverse. A satin-to-softly frosted texture is readily seen, and it blends nicely with light orange-gold color. Apart form a pair of shallow grazes in the right-obverse field that we mention for pedigree purposes, the surfaces are free of singularly conspicuous abrasions.<br />     The original mintage of the 1839-C is just 17,205 pieces, the vast majority of which have been lost to circulation. Ranking ninth in overall rarity and sixth in high-grade rarity among the 24 issues in the C-mint Half Eagle series, the 1839-C has an extant population of probably no more than 200 or 250 coins. The present example is listed third on the list of finest-known examples in the book <em>Gold Coins of the Charlotte Mint: 1838-1861, Third Edition </em>by Doug Winter.