1870

Just 4,000 circulation half eagles came off the Philadelphia coining presses in 1870, a figure that sits comfortably inside the Reconstruction-era key cluster alongside the 1862 (4,430) and 1864 (4,170). Federal gold still traded at a premium to Greenback paper currency five years after Appomattox, and Treasury orders for circulating half eagles remained small enough to satisfy with a single short production run. The same year carried a separate footnote in mint history: the brand-new Carson City facility opened its doors and struck its first half eagles, beginning the famously short and famously rare CC run that is cataloged separately on this site. The Philadelphia 1870 belongs to the quiet group of low-mintage post-war P-mint dates that any serious collector must confront to complete the long Liberty Head run.

An authentic 1870 Philadelphia half eagle weighs 8.359 grams on a 21.6 mm planchet of 90 percent gold and 10 percent copper, with a fully reeded edge. Because this is a major date, two diagnostics deserve careful attention. The working die received its date numerals without any mintmark punch applied, so the field below the eagle on a genuine coin should show original surface texture, with no raised remnant, lump, or tooling that could betray a removed S mintmark from a more common 1870-S. Weight tolerance on the denomination is tight; an example more than roughly a tenth of a gram light should be treated with suspicion until verified. Third-party encapsulation by PCGS or NGC is effectively standard at this price level.

Survivors sit in the low three figures across the combined PCGS and NGC graded populations, with most examples landing between Very Fine and About Uncirculated after a generation of working circulation. Mint State coins are genuine condition rarities and rate as significant auction events when they appear. Within the Reconstruction-era Philadelphia key group, the 1870 typically trades just below the 1864 in About Uncirculated grades and climbs firmly into the five figures at the Mint State threshold. Heritage Auctions has handled high-grade examples regularly enough to establish a stable price ladder. For anyone building a complete Philadelphia date set, the 1870 is one of the pieces that will define the budget. Read more in our Liberty Head Half Eagle series history.