Carson City half eagles continue to be very popular with collectors. Unlike their ten dollar and twenty dollar counterparts, this series is completable with no six figure rarities, and there are enough affordable collector grade coins to satisfy the whole gamut of gold coin budgets.

A lot has been happening in this area of late. Let’s take five brief takes into the world of Carson City half eagles.

1. Europe Yields Some Major Finds

It isn’t widely-known but a significant number of important Carson City gold coins have been located in Europe in recent years. This is certainly the case for half eagles where some recent discoveries include the following:

The second finest known 1874-CC (graded MS63 by PCGS) was sold in the very important and very under-the-radar Kunker Sale #340 held in Germany last Winter. Graded MS61+ by NGC in the auction, it narrowly trails a PCGS MS63+ which was “re-discovered” in the Stack’s Bowers 3/2018 sale (at $90k as a PCGS/CAC MS62) after having disappeared into a collector black hole since June 1991. The new 1874-CC is still for sale as of this blog being written.
The second finest known 1876-CC (graded MS62 by NGC and now, it appears, in a PCGS MS62 holder) which was sold in a special one-lot online auction by Spink’s in London on December 14, 2020 for $84,000 (including a 20% buyer’s premium). The only example of this date which is finer is the incomparable PCGS/CAC MS66 Eliasberg/Battle Born coin.
In their January 2020 auction, Heritage sold a fresh-to-the-market NGC AU58 1878-CC half eagle for a strong $72,000. A year later, Heritage sold the exact same coin—now in a PCGS AU58+ holder—for $78,000. This coin, which is the best 1878-CC I’ve ever seen and likely the finest known—is said to have come from Europe.

2. Low-Grade CC Half Eagles Gain Acceptance With Collectors

When I first started dealing in Carson City half eagles, coins grading Good to Very Fine weren’t all that popular with collectors. But as higher grade coins became very expensive, these collector grade coins grew noticeably more popular; especially if they were evenly worn and wholesome.

Values are tricky for these coins as they typically sell for multiples of their PCGS Price Guide listings. My litmus test for values on these coins is pretty straightforward: if the coin is really nice (PCGS/CAC) and there is a big price jump to the next grade (say Fine to Very Fine), you can pay 25-50% over price guide and probably not get hurt.

3. The Fairmont-ization Of the CC Half Eagle Market

The Fairmont Hoard has had a considerable impact on values in the Carson City half eagles and the impact has been a net positive.

*1881-CC $5.00 PCGS AU50, Fairmont Collection, ex Stack’s Bowers*

From what we have seen so far, there are no major rarities in this hoard (i.e., 1870-CC, 1873-CC, or 1878-CC) and the coins from the 1870s are mostly collector grades with great overall eye appeal. The 1880s issues have been more dramatically impacted. As an example, there have been three nice 1881-CC pieces from this source sold by Stack’s Bowers in the last year. Let’s look at the results:

3/21: PCGS/CAC AU50 sold for $7,800
11/20: PCGS/CAC AU55 sold for $12,000
8/20: PCGS/CAC AU55 sold for $12,000

This clearly demonstrates that the market is deep enough to absorb nice examples of the 1880s dates when they become available.

4. The 1870-CC Regains Its Mojo

Given its low mintage and its status as the first CC half eagle, the 1870-CC half eagle had been curiously overlooked until recently.

*1870-CC $5.00 PCGS VF25 CAC, ex Heritage*

Demand for this issue has shot up but the supply is very low. It’s been at least five years since I’ve handled a truly nice example and I was pretty impressed that a decent PCGS VF25 sold for $31,200 in the Heritage January 2021 auction; given that two PCGS VF20s sold for $17,400 and $18,000 in 2019.

It would be interesting to see what a nice PCGS/CAC AU55 or AU58 example of this date would bring in today’s market. It has been years since such a coin was available, and I don’t doubt that the competition for such a coin would be extremely fierce.

5. What’s In Store for the CC Half Eagle Series?

Here are three reasons why I think the future is really bright for Carson City half eagles:

There are no six figure rarities or impossibly scarce coins in this series. It is challenging (you can’t just race through a set) but not as much so as the CC eagles (an exceptionally difficult series to collect) or the double eagles (expensive and challenging).
The existence of European hoards has placed small numbers of really nice CC half eagles into the marketplace. Today’s collectors are getting a chance to buy some of the nicest Carson City half eagles that I can recall having seen since the huge hoards which came out of Eastern Europe in the early 1990s. These coins aren’t cheap but they represent exceptional quality, especially the Fairmont coins dated from 1880 to 1893.
Half eagles, as a rule, have become a much more collected denomination in the last few years. For many collectors, gold dollars are quarter eagles are too small, Three Dollar gold pieces are too weird, and eagles/double eagles have gotten really expensive. That leaves half eagles as a sweet spot for a number of new (and existing) collectors.

Let’s work together on building a great set of Carson City half eagles! Feel free to email me at dwn@ont.com or call/text me at (214) 675-9897 to discuss this.

HALF EAGLES