1856-S Liberty Head Half Eagle. AU-55 (NGC).Lustrous and satiny surfaces are sharply defined throughout with vivid light gold patina. Because of distrust of paper money, gold coins were the workhorse medium of exchange in the West. The entirety of the 105,100 mintage of 1856-S half eagles immediately entered circulation with little notice and went to work helping to make a dent in the enormous demand for lower denomination gold coins. And stay there they did -- the half eagle denomination had long been popular in commerce throughout the United States and especially so in California. In all degrees of preservation, the issue is notably scarce: PCGS CoinFacts estimates that only 225 examples exist in all grades. Of those, the typically offered grades are VF to low end AU. For the Western Americana specialist, here is an extraordinary opportunity to acquire an uncommonly high grade survivor from the earliest days of the San Francisco Mint and an underappreciated rarity.
