PCGS Coin of the Issue

Classic Gold Quar ter Eagle & Half Eagle Rarities

By Joshua McMorrow-Hernandez

Th e 1834 Classic Head HM-1 variety graded PCGS MS65 and the 1838 Classic Head Half Eagle HM-2 variety graded PCGS MS66, both from the heralded Virginian Collection, are two highlights from Daryl J. Haynor’s cabinet that will be among numerous classic gold rarities off ered in the Stack’s Bowers Galleries August Showcase sale. Courtesy of PCGS TrueView.

Daryl J. Haynor is a renowned collector of classic U.S. gold coinage and is the author of United States Classic Gold Coins of 1834-1839. Selections from his outstanding collection will be off ered to the public in an August Stack’s Bowers Galleries auction. Courtesy of Daryl J. Haynor.

Th e Classic Head gold coins of the 1830s are often viewed by numismatists as the earliest issues of the United States pre-1933 gold catalog that remain approachable by collectors in terms of overall availability and price. Th ese gorgeous gold coins, the artistic brainchildren of Chief Engraver of the United States Mint William Kneass, were produced in generally larger numbers than their predecessors and represent a transitional period in U.S. gold minting history when the nation was enjoying the yellow fruits of its fi rst gold rush in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains.

To handle the increasing need for more gold coinage in a young and rapidly expanding nation, the U.S. Mint announced in the mid-1830s the construction of three new mints in New Orleans, Charlotte, and the small gold-mining town of Dahlonega in Georgia. Th ese three mints – the fi rst branch facilities of the U.S. Mint – came online by 1838, with gold coin production remaining an integral part of the duties at the “mother mint” in Philadelphia. Even as mintages for Kneass’ Classic Head gold coinage reached into the six fi gures, survivors are relatively small in number, and especially so in higher grades.

Circulated specimens are relatively aff ordable, though many have been cleaned or bear damage and therefore it’s increasingly diffi cult to fi nd these types of coins in PCGS holders regardless of grade. Classic gold coins are conditional rarities in the better grades, as they are among certain die