Owner Comments:
The 1838-C half eagle was first series of coins that the Charlotte Mint produced when it began operations on March 26 of that year. The quarter eagle production began later in the year. Although the Philadelphia Mint sent two obverse and two reverse dies to Charlotte, only one of the obverse dies was used with both of the reverse dies. The second reverse die with evidence of recutting on the "5" in "5 D." was used on the coin that is displayed above. This piece was among the last 1838-C half eagles to be struck as evidenced by the large die crack that runs across the reverse. The crack is heavier than normal, and shows some larger lumps than are often seen. Most examples of this variety have the reverse die crack.
According to most sources, including the Red Book, the total mintage for the 1838-C half eagle was 17,179 pieces. Clair Birdsall estimated the mintage to be 19,118 pieces including 6,232 coins that were stuck in 1839. Today an estimated 200 to 250 examples survive according to Doug Winter.
Although the 1838-C half eagle is not a major rarity, it is very hard to find an attractive example of this coin. Very few pieces were saved from circulation when the coins were issued as evidenced by the fact only two to four examples are known in Mint State with the finest example grading MS-63. Almost Uncirculated examples are also quite scarce, and many of the surviving coins have been cleaned, often very harshly. Coins with smooth, original surfaces are quite rare and hard to find.
The coin shown above was in the Stanley Elrod collection. An expert Charlotte Mint collector told me that it is the seventh finest known example. It has very smooth surfaces for this issue with a decent amount of mint luster on both sides. It took me more than two years to locate this piece after rejecting more than 20 pieces that I had seen offered for sale.