1844-C $5 MS(PCGS#8220)

1844-C $5 MS (PCGS#8220)

The March 2010 Baltimore Auction

Losbeschreibung: 1844-C Liberty Half Eagle. Winter Variety 1 (7-D), the only known dies. Die State III. MS-61 (PCGS). Ranked high within its series in terms of overall and premium-quality rarity, the 1844-C is a more challenging Half Eagle to collect than a mintage of 23,631 pieces might suggest. The reason? The Charlotte Mint did not strike any Half Eagles in 1845, resulting in extreme demand for the 1844-C in commercial channels. The present example is one of no more than 200 coins believed extant in all grades. It is at the threshold of Condition Census and is also one of the very few Mint State survivors that this cataloger has handled over the years. Well struck from the dies--especially on the reverse--the only mentionable softness of detail is minor and confined to the central-obverse highpoint. Pretty rose-gold color throughout, with scattered grade-defining abrasions that include a wispy pinscratch that arcs down through the left-obverse field from Liberty's mouth.