When Did Civil War Gold Become Popular?
/Thanks to reader M.R. from Virginia, who suggested this interesting concept, I’m going to be writing a series of blogs over the coming months entitled: When Did (Subject) Become Popular?
The concept of these blogs is pretty simple. I’ll select an area of the rare date gold market and discuss the hows and whys behind its popularity. I will also choose some areas and discuss why they have become unpopular in recent years.
For this first blog, I thought it would be interesting to discuss how and why Civil War gold issues became very popular.
Up through the 1990s, the low mintage Philadelphia and San Francisco gold issues struck during the Civil War era weren’t especially popular and they represented excellent value. I can remember begging clients to buy a nice NGC AU53 1864 quarter eagle I owned around 1993 for $10,000, and winding-up having to sell the coin to another dealer for a loss. Today, this coin would likely grade AU58 and it would be worth $80,000-90,000.
1861-D $1.00 PCGS MS61
There were only three Civil War issues that were in strong demand at this time: the Proof-only 1863 quarter eagle which was a $50,000 coin, and the 1861-D gold dollar and half eagle which were key members of the Cult of Dahlonega and have had a strong following since the 1960s.
By the mid-1990s there were maybe a dozen dealers who really knew the dated gold market and who were active participants. They knew that coins like 1864-S half eagles and eagles were really rare, and they would pay in excess of current market prices when nice coins came around.
I think collectors finally became savvy about the Civil War issues around 1999-2001 when the Bass Collection was sold. There were multiple outstanding examples of most of the 1861-1865 dates, and the higher grades pieces brought record prices in many cases. But collector grade coins (i.e., those in the VF-EF range) stayed affordable.
Fast forward to around 2010. I had a brainstorm one afternoon. 2011 marked the sesquicentennial of the beginning of the Civil War, and what would be more natural than to promote Civil War gold? I began to quietly accumulate coins and simultaneously began to feature articles and blogs on my website touting them.
I remember selling virtually all the coins I had very early on in my promotion and not being able to find many more for Round Two and Round Three. Other dealers had the same idea I did, and suddenly Civil War gold became popular.
In the next few years, prices shot up. Let’s look at a few examples:
1863 $5.00 PCGS AU58
1863 Half Eagle, AU58
May 2008, an NGC AU58 brought $14,375 as Heritage 5/08: 3268
January 2014, a PCGS AU58 brought $30,550 as Heritage 2014 FUN: 6708
1862 $10.00 PCGS AU55 CAC
1862 Eagle, AU55
August 2003, an NGC AU55 brought $2,185 in a Heritage internet sale
January 2011, a PCGS AU55 brought $6,900 as Heritage 2011 FUN: 7048
1865-S Inverted Date Eagle, EF45
July 2004, an NGC EF45 brought $5,750 as Heritage 7/04: 8360
February 2014, an NGC EF45 brought $14,688 as Heritage 2/14: 4180
These double and triple price increases weren’t sustainable but really nice examples of really rare Civil War issues have continued to perform very well. Prices haven’t been as strong for gold dollars (except the 1861-D), quarter eagles (except for the 1864 and 1865 Philadelphia issues), and the three dollars due to their smaller size and—in the case of the Threes—greater overall availability. Half eagles and eagles have done extremely well, and while high end AUs and Uncirculated coins are now priced at levels which are inaccessible to most collectors, nice collector grade pieces can still be had for many legitimately rare issues at less than $10,000. Double eagles are an altogether different animal due to shipwrecks and European hoards which have swelled populations.
1865 $3.00 PCGS AU58 CAC
In 2020, I’d rank Civil War gold as one of the more popular ultra-specialties in American numismatics. There are still a number of issues which, in my opinion, are highly underrated (a few examples are the 1864 and 1865 gold dollars, the 1865-S quarter eagle, the 1865 three dollar, and the 1865-S Normal Date eagle) and it is still possible to put together an impressive set of these issues.
For more information on Civil War gold coins search our article and blog archives. If you’d like to work with me on a set, feel free to contact me via email at dwn@ont.com or call me at (214) 675-9897.
