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Mintage: 20 Proofs

When viewing mintage figures, most numismatists exclaim that a coin is “rare” because only 10,000 or so were produced. But this figure seems almost laughable in comparison to the mintages for Proof gold coins struck prior to 1900. In fact, many of these issues have mintages that were lower than 100 coins.


With an original production figure of only 20 Proofs, the 1878 is tied with three other issues (1874, 1875 and 1877) as the lowest mintage Proof date of this denomination from 1859 onwards. The rarity of this was known by numismatists as early as the 1910’s/1920’s.

Unfortunately, the population reports for Proof 1878 quarter eagles include a number of resubmissions and this has further obfuscated the true rarity of this issue. PCGS has graded three: one example each in PR64, PR64 Deep Cameo and PR65 Deep Cameo. NGC shows ten submissions but I can all but guarantee you this number is severely inflated. These include one each in PR63, PR64 and PR65 plus four (!) in PR64 Ultra Cameo and three in PR65 Ultra Cameo.

My best estimate is that there are seven or eight examples known. This includes at least two that are impounded (ANS and Smithsonian). Breen wrote that “at least three” are impaired but I have never seen or heard of one of these.

Mintage: 28,457

Over the years I’ve stated again and again that AU58 coins are favorites of mine. When a coin is a real AU58, it tends to have better eye appeal than coins graded MS60, MS61 and sometimes even MS62. This 1856-C half eagle is a perfect example of why I dig sliders. The surfaces are very clean with no marks of note on the obverse; a small mint-made planchet flake on the reverse is hidden in the horizontal lines of the shield and can easily be missed with the naked eye. This is one of the half dozen rarest half eagles from this mint and it is one of the two hardest dates from this decade to find along with the 1854-C.