1853-C $5.00 NGC AU55

I bought this coin at the recent Denver ANA show from a dealer who imports coins from Europe. I was surprised to see it in his inventory and so few Charlotte coins seem to have been sent to Europe and when I asked him how often he brought Charlotte and Dahlonega gold coins back to the States he replied "very infrequently; maybe just a few times a year." This delightfully crusty example has deep, dark green-gold color with plenty of dirt in the recesses. There are a few scuffs in the fields but this pierce has very acceptable surfaces for the grade and the color is far, far above-average. This is a nice choice for the collector who wants a single high quality Charlotte half eagle for his set.

1841-D $5.00 NGC AU58 CAC

Small D mintmark variety. This coin shows excellent detail and has virtually no real wear but there is just a touch too much friction seen on the obverse and reverse to grade it Uncirculated. Nonetheless, it has eye appeal that is superior to examples that I have seen in MS61 holders. The obverse is very choice with considerable amounts of frosty luster and nice light golden-orange color; the reverse is a bit less lustrous and its color shades a bit more towards rose hues. As a date, the 1841-D is a curious issue as it is a bit more available in Uncirculated than dates such as the 1840-D and 1842-D Small Date but it is rarer from an overall perspective. In the higher AU grades, the 1841-D is seldom offered for sale and very few auction appearances have been recorded in the past decade for coins grading AU55 and AU58. With a nice Uncirculated 1841-D now costing in the $15,000+ range, this choice "slider" should appeal to many collectors.

This is the only 1841-D half eagle in AU58 to have been approved by CAC. Only one finer has been approved.

1844 $5.00 NGC MS61 CAC

While very common in all circulated grades, the 1844 half eagle is scarce in Uncirculated and it is nearly never seen above MS62. This example is choice and frosty with lovely natural medium to deep green-gold color on the obverse and reverse. The strike is excellent and the surfaces are choice save for a few small marks scattered about the surfaces. Only four PCGS MS61 examples of this date have sold at auction since 2000. I believe that nice No Motto half eagles of this sort remain exceptional values.

This is the only 1844 half eagle in this grade to have been approved by CAC and only one higher grade piece has been approved. The CAC population for this date is just two coins.

1838-C $5.00 PCGS AU50

The 1838-C isn't the rarest half eagle from this mint (that would be the 1842-C Small Date) but it is certainly the most popular and this is clearly due to its twin status as a first-year-of-issue and a one-year type that features the Classic Head design. The 1838-C, even more than its counterpart the 1838-D, is a condition rarity. It is fairly available in VF and EF grades but it is genuinely scarce in properly graded AU50 to AU55 and extremely rare in Uncirculated. This nice example is one of the best 1838-C half eagles that I've offered for sale in quite some time. It is very lustrous with nice light green-gold and yellow color and enough "meat" to more than justify its AU50 grade by PCGS. As is common for this issue, the surfaces are noticeably abraded (the 1838-C half eagle is almost never seen with choice surfaces) but other than a small line on the face of Liberty, there are none that are really worthy of mention. Interestingly, there have been no auction prices realized for a PCGS AU50 example of the 1838-C half eagle since February 2003 and there are records of more than $10,000 for slabbed AU50's of this issue that date back as far as 1998. Branch mint coins that are numismatically significant are currently in strong demand and I expect that this nice 1838-C half eagle will prove interesting to many collectors.

1861 $3.00 NGC EF40 CAC

I find it interesting that a scarce coin like this sells for a very small premium over a very common date (such as the 1874 or 1878) yet it is literally dozens of times more rare. This evenly worn, nicely toned example is notable for its pleasing flashes of orange-gold color and, surprisingly, there is still luster seen in the protected areas. Only 5,959 were made and this is a popular issue in any grade due to its Civil War assocation.

This is the only 1861 three dollar gold piece in this grade to be approved by CAC; fourteen have been approved in higher grades.

1865 $2.50 NGC AU58

There are a trio of very rare quarter eagles made at the Philadelphia mint during the Civil War. The foremost is the Proof-only 1863 with a mintage of 30 and just behind this is the 1864. But the 1865 is almost as rare, despite being less heralded, with an original mintage of only 1,520. Clearly, less than three dozen survive and the 1865 is actually as rare as the 1864 in terms of high(er) grade specimens. There are exactly three 1864 quarter eagles in Uncirculated but just one 1865 (a PCGS MS63) and the two dates are reasonably similar in terms of rarity in the AU grades with around ten or so known. The present example is appealing for the date and grade with an especially choice obverse that shows nice peripheral color and fewer marks than normal; the reverse is mostly untoned with a few more marks seen in the fields. I was recently offered an AU55 of this date (for just a shade less than $20,000) which I think was vastly inferior to this coin and the piece offered here is, in fact, one of the nicer examples of this date that I have seen or owned. In the last decade, there have been ten auction records for the 1865 quarter eagle in AU58 ranging in price from a low of $17,250 to a high of $25,875. This date has really not gone up all that much in price while the 1863 and 1864 have shown strong gains of late. In my opinion, the 1865 is very undervalued and as Civil War rarities become more appreciated, I think it has good potential to appreciate in price.

1847-D $2.50 PCGS EF45

If you pay attention to these things, you'll note that the availability of nice, original Dahlonega gold coins of any date or denomination has really dried up in the last year or two. I have a very hard time finding any coins that I like enough to offer to collectors. But it was never easy finding coins like this 1847-D quarter eagle. I have noted in the past that this issue comes with good color more than any other quarter eagle from this mint and this specific example is choice and original with pleasing medium green-gold color. The surfaces are choice and show even wear with plenty of dirt in the recesses attesting to its originality. If you have been looking for a nice, affordable Dahlonega quarter eagle, this piece would be hard to better at less than $3,000.

1851-D $1.00 NGC AU58

As a date, the 1851-D is the second most available Type One dollar from this mint but it is at least two to three times more scarce than the 1849-D. There were only 9,982 produced and this issue tended to see rather heavy circulation with examples usually in the EF40 to AU50 range. Choice AU 1851-D dollars are scarce and examples with natural color and surfaces are quite rare. This piece has some of the most attractive color that I can recall having seen on an 1851-D dollar with both the obverse and reverse showing very deep rich green-gold hues with contrasting shades of russet in the fields. The strike is sharp for the issue with fewer of the usual clashmarks and strong detail seen on the hair, date and mintmark. Below the color, there appears to be a considerable amount of luster and there seems to be no real wear, just a touch of friction on the high spots. This is a superb coin which deserves a strong premium on account of its coloration and it would make a great addition to a Dahlonega set that emphasized eye appeal.

The DWN Market Report: An Appreciation

Around four years ago, a close friend of mine who is not only a very successful businessman but a passionate coin collector made the following comment to me while we were at dinner: "Doug, you need to start a coin blog. Collectors like me are starved for unbiased information, and there's nowhere on the web to find it." With this comment, the raregoldcoins.com DWN Market Report was born.

Around four years later, the number of DWN Market Reports now numbers over 150. At an average of 1500+ words per blog, that's more than 225,000 words or a decent-sized book. I don't think I've repeated too many topics, and I've tried really hard to keep fluff to a minimum. I'd like to think that for many coin collectors, the DWN Market Report has become the go-to source for those who want a high quality educational experience.

So...I'd like to take a few minutes of your time to let you know what the DWN Market Report is--and what it isn't.

About once a month, I get a comment that is somewhere along these lines: "I LOVE your blog. Its like a college course in coins." (or) "I learn more about coins and the coin market from your blog than anyplace else on the web." I love comments like these. To me, an educated collector is a collector who operates out of confidence; not fear. He buys more coins, I sell more coins; we're all happy.

What I try to do with each blog I write is to provide information that any gold coin collector, from beginner to expert, will find useful. Around one-third of the blogs deal with the how's and why's of the market: what to collect, where to find it, what to pay for it, how to grade it, why to sell it, etc, etc. The rest of the articles tend to address specific groups of coins and the collectors who love them: Civil War gold, San Francisco gold dollars, New Orleans double eagles, three dollar gold, etc.

At one time, I wrote blogs that recapped coin shows. I've more or less stopped doing these, except for FUN and the Summer ANA, because they are boring to write and read, and because they are self-serving and trite.

What the DWN Market Report isn't:

-Its not a recap of all the coins that I've sold in the last week. If you want to know what I've sold, look at my website on the day after a major show (when I have the most coins) and three weeks later (when I am nearly out of coins).

-Its not me bragging about how great business is. If you want to know, my business is doing just fine, thanks, but aren't you more interested in Charlotte quarter eagles than my new clients from Charlotte?

-Its not a recap of what I had for dinner last night or how my 45 minute stay in Phoenix was extended to 45 hours due to a thunderstorm.

-Its not an attack on the ANA, the grading services, the PNG, the auction houses or anything/anyone else that I'm feeling cranky about. My Mom always told me to say something nice or don't say anything at all. Mom, I'm pretty certain you were 95% right...

-Its not a lightning rod for controversy.

I've had a few people criticize my blogs for not being more in your face. If you know me at all, I'm not an in your face type or person. I'll teach you how to recognize originality and show you photos of original coins but I'm not going to "out" coin doctors or discuss the latest doctoring techniques. That's just not how I roll. I'll leave that to other coin bloggers...

You came to raregoldcoins.com expecting choice and rare United States gold coins that were fairly priced and for which an active two-way market is made. The DWN Market Report is a reflection of this: clean, concise and taut; the prose equivalent of a well struck, nicely toned early half eagle. And this is what I strive to provide to my readers.