US Coins

What an affordable 1877-CC Coronet $5 coin looks like

By Steve Roach

Published: Sep 28, 2016, 4 AM

A well-worn but still handsome 1877-CC Coronet gold $5 half eagle graded Very Good 10 sold for $1,762.50 at Heritage’s Sept. 9 auction.

Original images courtesy of Heritage Auctions

A well-worn but still handsome 1877-CC Coronet gold $5 half eagle graded Very Good 10 sold for $1,762.50 at Heritage’s Sept. 9 auction. With its bronze-gold coloration and even wear, though with some weakness at the lower reverse rim, it is a textbook example of the grade.

Images courtesy of Heritage Auctions.

Heritage’s Sept. 7 to 13 Long Beach, Calif., auctions included the Twelve Oaks Collection of rare U.S. gold coins assembled by a Midwest collector.

Noteworthy for its scope and size, that collection realized $8.5 million across nearly 2,600 lots, and Heritage’s Long Beach auctions overall brought more than $31 million.

Leading the Twelve Oaks offerings was a 1795 Capped Bust gold $5 half eagle graded Mint State 62 by Numismatic Guaranty Corp. that sold for $141,000. More selections from the same collection are set for Heritage’s upcoming coin auctions in Dallas and New York City.

Here is one of three coins from the Long Beach auctions that we're profiling in this week's Market Analysis:

The Lot:

1877-CC Coronet gold $5 half eagle, NGC Very Good 10

The Price:

$1,762.50

The Story:

Massive single-owner auctions like the Twelve Oaks Collection include a broad range of coins, allowing the results to shed light on different segments of the rare coin market.

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This NGC Very Good 10 1877-CC Coronet gold $5 half eagle provided a convenient entry point for a collector to purchase this otherwise expensive and rare Carson City Mint issue with a low mintage of 8,680.

Coronet gold half eagle: Mintages vary widely over the 70 years the design was produced – the 1877 with the lowest at 1,132 pieces, to a high of 3,648,000 for the 1901-S, with tens to even hundreds of thousands produced for more dates. How much are Coronet gold half eagles worth?

Gold coins in low circulated grades are seldom found without damage since gold is a soft medal, and this is one of the lowest-grade examples of the issue known. With a handsome bronze-gold coloration and even wear — though the lower reverse rim shows some weakness — it is a textbook example of the grade and sold for $1,762.50.

Keep reading analysis of Twelve Oaks Collection gold coins:
		*Privately struck coin that is a ‘historic reminder’ of Gold Rush dazzles at Twelve Oaks sale*: Moffat & Co. was "the most important and longest-lasting of the California private minters, and their coins today are historic reminders of the heady Gold Rush days.”
		*1848 Coronet, CAL. gold quarter eagle could be first U.S. commemorative coin*: Collectors will long debate whether the 1,389 1848 Coronet gold $2.50 quarter eagles with CAL. stamped above the eagle’s head on the reverse are truly the first U.S. commemorative coins.