1849 LIBERTY HEAD GOLD HALF EAGLE, NGC AU58, SCARCE

Description

1849 Liberty Head Gold Half Eagle
NGC graded AU58
NGC/PCGS graded population 363 (including resubmissions) (PCGS suggests an estimated survival in all grades of 175)
Mintage 133,070
David Akers' "United States Gold Coins - An Analysis Of Auction Records - Volume IV - Half Eagles" states, "Like most Philadelphia Mint coins of the 1840's and early 1850's, the 1849 has a much higher mintage than the mintmarked coins of the same period. As a result, the 1849 has been accorded "common date" status by most cataloguers and standard pricing guides. That is hardly the case, however, as the auction data indicates."
Walter Breen, in his "Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. And Colonial Coins" indicates the 1849 half eagle is "Ex. rare in AU."
Although the two aforementioned sources are dated 1979 and 1987 respectively, Garrett and Guth in their "Encyclopedia of U.S. Gold Coins" dated 2008 still echo this observation, "With a mintage of 133,070, one might expect the 1849 half eagle to be very common. That is not the case, however. The 1849 is actually seen less often than some of the very popular branch-mint issues."
Die stria are still evident at the date
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