Opinion On Grade/Value - 1900 $5 Half Eagle

I'm going to call your coin a very good EF45, maybe AU50, with excellent eye appeal. What I won't call your coin is, worth more than melt. The reason is that too many have survived as carefully-preserved collector's items. This issue doesn't have a low mintage in the grand scheme of things, and it's from an era when people didn't really have the wherewithal to own, much less spend, gold coins. A search of established auction results indicates that sales of Mint State examples overwhelm those of circulated examples, not so much an indication that coins like this are rare, but that enough are available in Uncirculated condition to satisfy the ongoing demand from people who want to buy them.

That's the bad news.

The good news is, given the softness of gold and its' easy susceptibility to damage, this example is just_plain_nice. Your images are excellent, and although I won't comment on surface originality from them, I will certainly express an opinion of eye appeal and it doesn't get much better than this.

You coin would be, in my opinion, the perfect example of the "smart" solution to filling holes in a Dansco 7070 or similar Type Set album. I would dearly love to own it. But I wouldn't pay much more than melt.

Thanks SsuperDdave. That's exactly the kind of answer I was looking for. The dealer told me common date half eagles in less than MS didn't fetch much more than melt, but he didn't explain why.

It's my opinion that a 7070 in EF-AU is very much a sweet spot for a tremendous collection. This isn't going to be the hardest or even most-expensive coin for something like that - look at early copper - but it's a heckuva start. And don't compromise the structure because Proof Moderns are so easy. Make it *all* EF-AU, and stay the course. You'll have something your numismatic peers will celebrate when you're done.

I think your coin could grade around AU-50. It has a very pleasing kind of "dirty" look to it. SsuperDdave has already pointed out one reason why these carry very little premium in circulated grades. Another reason I can think of is many of these coins were used in large international transactions especially with Europe where they sat in vaults for years thus avoiding the recall in 1933. Had they stayed in the U.S, with the gold recall and the resetting of the dollar price from $20.67 to $35 in 1934, you may see prices much more closely resembling pre-1834 gold.