The new Christian Gobrecht design for the Liberty Head gold coinage was introduced to the eagle denomination in 1838 and to the half eagle in 1839. The 1839 half eagle coinage is numismatically significant as being one-year types and the 1839-C is the only Liberty Head half eagle to display the mintmark on the obverse. It is very popular for this fact and it has become, along with the 1838-C, one of the two half eagles from this mint with true Multiples Levels of Demand. The 1839-C is very scarce in the middle to higher AU grades, especially with natural color and choice surfaces.

This very attractive example is one of the few 1839-C half eagles that I have seen with most of its natural color intact. It shows light wear, mostly on the high spots, and is a medium orange-gold and green with an area of deeper coppery-orange directly atop Liberty’s head. There are a few scattered marks in the fields and a few minor edge marks from contact with other coins.

There have been just two slabbed AU58 examples of this date which have sold at auction since January 2005. An NGC AU58 which was very low end for the grade sold for $9,200 as Heritage 3/09: 2887 while a slightly nicer but still not choice NGC AU58 sold for $12,650 as Heritage 1/08: 1984.

Uncirculated examples of this date now trade in the $20,000-30,000 range making this very nice AU58 an important offering for the type or date collector who has been waiting for an impressive 1839-C half eagle for his collection.