1843

The 1843 eagle arrived during a stretch when the federal series had finally found its footing. Christian Gobrecht's Coronet design, introduced only five years earlier, had moved past its earliest die-state experiments, and the Philadelphia coining presses ran on a production schedule that would feel almost routine compared with the irregularities of the late 1830s. Reported deliveries reached 75,462 pieces, a figure that places the issue solidly in the middle of the decade's output and well above the 1844 emission that followed. The 1843 also sits in the No Motto chapter of the series, predating the 1866 reverse change, and reflects the early bullion-driven role the denomination played in domestic and international commerce.

Strike quality on 1843 eagles tends toward the average end of the No Motto spectrum, with softness common at the central hair curls and on the eagle's neck feathers, though Liberty's coronet typically shows full lettering. Surface preservation is the more meaningful divider. The vast majority of survivors sit in the lower circulated grades, with VF coins doing most of the population work. AU material is genuinely scarce, and Mint State examples rank among the formidable rarities of the decade. Authentication for a piece of this size relies on weight (16.718 grams), specific gravity near 17.2, and inspection for cast seams and tooled fields under magnification, since modern counterfeits of mid-1840s eagles do circulate.

Today the 1843 occupies an interesting middle ground. Doug Winter has long flagged it as one of the more affordable Philadelphia eagles of the 1840s in circulated grades, where collectors assembling a year set can secure a presentable VF without the premium attached to truly low-mintage dates. The calculus shifts at AU58 and above, where supply collapses and price pressure intensifies; a PCGS AU58 sold for $14,400 in 2020, and an MS60 reached $25,200 at Stack's Bowers in April 2022. For broader context on the design family and its production arc, see the Liberty Head Eagle series history.