This numismatically significant issue is the first double eagle produced at the New Orleans mint. The 1850-O used to be lumped with the 1851-O and 1852-O but it is now known to be considerably scarcer, especially in higher grades. It is usually seen in the VF-EF range and almost never with choice, original surfaces.

This is among the nicest coins for the grade that I have seen. It shows totally natural green-gold color over very lightly abraded surfaces which have some luster in the protected areas. There are some areas of weakness at the left and right stars on the obverse which are the result of die lapping (the dies were repolished to remove rust) while the reverse is stronger. I have handled many examples of this date in EF45 and I can only recall a small handful with the overall eye apeal shown by this lovely piece.

There were a total of three auction records for the 1850-O double eagle in EF45 during 2012. These coins sold for $7,763, $7,475 and $8,050, respectively. Nonewere CAC aproved and none of them, in my opinion, were as nice as the present example.

In the “New Purchases” email that I just sent out to my clients, I got more responses in regard to this coin than any of the other pieces which I mentioned. It is destined to sell quickly and it would be hard to find a nicer EF45 1850-O double eagle than this.

CAC has approved six in this grade with six finer.