1881 Liberty Head $5 Half Eagle

1881 Liberty Head $5 half eagle gold coins were struck at the Philadelphia, Carson City (CC), and San Francisco (S) mints. The Philadelphia mint made more $5 gold coins in 1881 than it had in any single previous year. San Francisco, which struck just a little less than 1 million pieces, also carried a huge chunk of that year’s half eagle production. Meanwhile, the Carson City Mint struck a characteristically small number of half eagles.

Here’s a look at the mintages and values of 1881 $5 Liberty Head half eagle gold coins:

• 1881, 5,708,802 minted; $787

• 1881 Final “1” over “0”, mintage included above; $860

• 1881-CC, 13,886; $1,750

• 1881-S, 969,000; $787

• 1881 proof, 42; $16,500

*Values are for coins grading Very Fine 20 unless otherwise stated.

Given the ample production of 1881 (Philadelphia) half eagles in particular, it is relatively easy to find nice representatives of this date at most coin shows and coin shops. In fact, 1881 $5 gold coins are among the most frequently encountered examples of the Liberty Head half eagle series, which was designed by Christian Gobrecht. Yet, collectors and bullion investors will take notice of the values for these coins and find that they are still more expensive than their intrinsic gold content alone would dictate. This is due to the overall scarceness of 1881 half eagles and, really, all pre-1933 U.S. gold coins in general. At this point, it should be noted that 1881 half eagles contain 0.24187 ounces of pure gold per coin.