Coin Corner: 1838 Classic Head Half Eagle AU55
The Classic Head Gold Half Eagle, designed by William Kneass, was only minted from 1834 to 1838. During this four-year span of production, there were only a total of 2,113,612 examples of this design and denomination struck across every U.S. Mint branch. To put that into perspective, the mintage numbers of many single issues of the Liberty Head and Saint-Gaudens Gold Double Eagles often have mintages higher than the entire series of the Classic Head. With so few Classic Head Half Eagles minted, finding an example of any date and any year is simply difficult to do.
This specific example was struck at the Philadelphia Mint in 1838, which is the final year of issue for the Classic Head Half Eagle series and has been graded in About Uncirculated 55 condition. In total, only 286,588 examples of the 1838 Classic Head Half Eagle were produced, making it a tremendous Absolute Rarity.
What truly makes this coin special, however, is that it was found aboard the wreckage of the SS Central America. In total, only six examples of the 1838 Classic Head Gold Half Eagle were found on the SSCA, making it one of the rarest designs on board. This specific example is one of only two About Uncirculated 55 examples of this coin found on the SSCA, and with no higher examples in the wreckage, this is one of the two finest known SSCA 1838 Classic Head Gold Half Eagles to exist.
