1818

Production of the half eagle resumed in 1818 after a two-year silence at the Philadelphia Mint. A January 1816 fire had destroyed the rolling mills and coining presses needed to strike gold, and no half eagles were produced during 1816 or 1817 while the equipment was rebuilt. The 1818 issue therefore marks the first delivery of $5 gold pieces in three years, and the combined mintage across all dies came to roughly 48,588 coins. Two of those die varieties are dramatic enough that collectorskey.com catalogs them on their own pages: the 1818 5D over 50, where the engraver punched the denomination digits in the wrong order before correcting them, and the 1818 STATESOF, where the words STATES and OF on the reverse legend ran together. This page covers the normal 1818 die marriage that carries neither error.

An authentic 1818 half eagle weighs 8.75 grams and measures about 25 millimeters across, struck in 0.9167 fine gold with a copper and silver alloy and finished with a reeded edge. Because the Capped Head Left design uses very fine relief lettering and small stars, counterfeits often show soft or mushy details where the genuine dies struck crisply. Collectors should weigh the coin first, since deceptive cast or struck copies frequently fall light by a tenth of a gram or more, and they should examine the reverse legend carefully to confirm proper spacing between STATES and OF before assuming the coin is the normal variety. The denomination 5 D. should also be inspected, since a misidentified 5D over 50 commands a different premium and belongs on its own page.

Surviving 1818 half eagles are scarce in any grade, primarily because Capped Head gold contained slightly more bullion than its face value implied once gold prices rose, prompting heavy melting in the United States and abroad before the 1834 weight reduction ended the practice. Most examples reaching the market today fall in the VF to AU range, and certified Mint State coins are genuine condition rarities. Buyers should always purchase pieces certified by PCGS or NGC given the values involved and the prevalence of altered or counterfeit early gold. For the broader story of how the 1818 production fit into the type, see our Capped Bust Half Eagle series history.