1822 Capped Bust Gold $5 Half Eagle

The 1822 half eagle is one of the most valuable and famous coins in the world. Mint records show 17,796 half eagles delivered, a seemingly adequate figure. But only three coins survive. Two reside permanently in the Smithsonian Institution (one in the National Numismatic Collection, the other in the Josiah K. Lilly Collection), leaving exactly one example available to private collectors.

That single coin has traced a remarkable provenance. Virgil Brand acquired it in 1899. His heirs sold it to Louis Eliasberg in 1945 for $14,000. After Eliasberg's death in 1976, D. Brent Pogue purchased the coin in 1982 for $687,500. In March 2021, the Pogue specimen, graded AU50 by PCGS, sold for $8.4 million (including buyer's premium) at Stack's Bowers' Rarities Night auction in Las Vegas, setting a record for the most valuable United States half eagle ever sold.

Why only three survive from a mintage of nearly 18,000? The answer lies in the gold export economics that plagued American gold coinage throughout this period. Half eagles were worth slightly more as bullion than as currency at the legal gold-to-silver ratio, and speculators acquired newly minted coins, melted them, and exported the gold for profit. The 1822 was caught in this hemorrhage. Nearly the entire mintage was converted to bullion, leaving three coins that somehow escaped the melting pot.

The 1822 half eagle is the one coin that makes a complete date set of United States gold coinage by date impossible for any private collector. The two Smithsonian coins will never be sold. The single Pogue specimen is the only option, and its last sale price of $8.4 million placed it among the most expensive coins ever sold at auction. The 1822 stands alongside the 1933 double eagle and the 1913 Liberty nickel as one of the most iconic rarities in all of numismatics.