The finer of only two 1838-C half eagles graded Uncirculated by PCGS has been sold for a record price for any business strike Classic Head half eagle, and for any half eagle from the Charlotte Mint. Owned by dealers Douglas Winter (of Douglas Winter Numismatics in Portland, Oregon) and John Albanese (of Certified Acceptance Corporation of Far Hills, New Jersey), the coin was listed for sale on Winter’s website (raregoldcoins.com) for $375,000. It was sold to an unidentified collector.

The Classic Head design was limited to quarter eagles and half eagles produced from 1834 through 1839. Half eagles of this type were struck at the Philadelphia mint (1834-1838), the Charlotte mint (1838 only), and the Dahlonega mint (1838 only). The Charlotte issue is considered to be the rarest mintmark issue of any Classic Head design with an original mintage of just 17,179 coins. A few hundred are known today with the majority showing extensive wear. This issue is regarded as quite scarce in the higher circulated grades, and it is excessively rare in Uncirculated with just a small number known.

The 1838-C sold by Winter and Albanese was graded MS63+ by PCGS and it had been approved by CAC. Until this coin was encapsulated in 2019 by PCGS, the only 1838-C half eagle in any Uncirculated grade was an MS63 which traded at Stack’s Bowers sale of the Pogue Collection auction in May 2016 for a then record price of $235,000.

The new finest known 1838-C had been off the market since April 1978 when it brought $10,500 in a Stack’s auction. It had been held by the owner since then until he sold it through an east coast dealer in 2019. It was then purchased by Winter and Albanese.

According to John Albanese, “I regard this 1838-C as both the single most important business strike Classic Head gold coin of any issue and the single best half eagle from Charlotte. It is a coin with many levels of demand; an essential piece to the collector of high grade Classic Head gold, to the advanced Charlotte gold specialist or for a collector working on a type set featuring irreplaceable coins.”

Winter was equally enthusiastic. “This coin is a great combination of aesthetic beauty, true condition rarity and numismatic significance. There are other Charlotte half eagle known which grade higher than this but one has to remember that the 1838-C is important as a first-year-of-issue and as a one-year type. It is also the rarest Charlotte half eagle in very high grades.”

Classic Head gold coins have been overlooked for many generations, but a new standard reference work by Daryl Haynor is set to be released in the coming months and this is likely to encourage specialized collecting of both quarter eagles and half eagles of this design.

Charlotte gold coinage has been extensively researched by Winter, who has produced three different editions of the book “Gold Coins of the Charlotte Mint, 1838-1861.” Copies of this work are offered from the publisher Zyrus Press at their website, translinesupply.com.