I was recently offered a very common but very saleable New Orleans half eagle which should have been very easy to price and purchase. Instead, it turned into a Coin Pricing Fiasco which, in turn, inspired this quick blog.

The coin in question is a PCGS AU55 1844-O half eagle. This is—by far—the most available No Motto half eagle from this facility, and there currently 48 graded as such by PCGS with another 74 finer. Even counting for resubmissions, this is a significant number of 1844-O half eagles which have been graded in AU55 and higher grades.

*an 1844-O $5.00 in PCGS AU55 CAC, from the DWN archives*

The owner of this coin asked me what I would pay for it. I asked him for the PCGS serial number for the specific coin and looked at the PCGS TrueView image. The coin was nice and with no due diligence, I told him I would pay around $1,400-1,500 as it is a coin which I would likely be a seller of at around $1,750 as a non-CAC, and $2,150 if it were CAC approved.

The owner then pointed out that there were three fairly recent auction prices realized for PCGS AU55 1844-O half eagles in the $3s. In August 2021, a PCGS/CAC coin brought $3,360, while in June 2021 a different PCGS/CAC realized $3,600. In March 2021 a third PCGS/CAC AU55 sold for $3,840. It is important to note that all three were nice original coins pedigreed to the Fairmont hoard. It is equally important to note that—in my opinion—while all three were nice, none were likely upgrades to AU58.

During the same year (2021) there were two APRs for non-CAC PCGS AU55 1844-O half eagles. One was for $1,525 in August 2021, while the other was for $1,140 in March 2021. It should also be noted that the three prior APRs for the 1844-O half eagle in PCGS AU55 were $1,357 (11/2020), $1,162 (7/2019), and $1,020 (12/2018).

So…this begs the question: is a PCGS AU55 1844-O half eagle worth $1,400 or is it worth $3,750?

The answer is that some 1844-O half eagles are worth the former, while others are worth the latter. Going further down the Rabbit Hole, it must be asked: “are all PCGS/CAC AU55 examples of this date worth $3,750?” What about a nice PCGS/CAC AU55 1844-O which is crusty and original, but which lacks the Fairmont pedigree?

The answer is probably not—but there are enough APRs to state that a nice Fairmont pedigreed example seems to be worth this amount.

*an 1844-O $5.00 in NGC AU55, from the DWN archives*

This points out just why coin pricing is very complex; even with a reasonably common issue such as a PCGS AU55 1844-O half eagle. You always need to remember that the rare date gold market is very thinly traded due to limited supplies, and that even a “frequently traded” issue such as an 1844-O half eagle in PCGS AU55 has just three CAC approved examples sold at auction in the past few years.

In the end, this situation probably means that it will be impossible for me to convince a seller that his nice AU55 1844-O isn’t worth $3,750.

HALF EAGLES