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COOL COIN SHOWCASE, #8, June 9, 2026

Rare O-Mint Gold




Hi Folks,

            In this CCS we focus on O-Mint Gold.  Before becoming a dealer, Pre-Civil War Classic Head and Liberty Gold, as well as CC and O-Mint Gold in later years was something I focused on in my collection.  They were all sold off to Doug Winter who helped me build that collection, in 2019 to help pay for the cost to build our retirement house.  Doug presented these in one of his Concierge offerings on raregoldcoins.com and I was very flattered that he did so.  Many of these were very special coins and essentially one of a kind.  I know where some of them were placed and glad these collectors got them and will hold them for a very long time. Suffice to say if I were to try to re-create this amazing collection Doug helped me with, it would likely be impossible to obtain the combination of rarity and quality of the examples.  Now that I am largely selling these kinds of gold coins here on Desert Moon, I get excited when I am able to find examples that meet my expectations, largely found on the bourse at shows, or walking up to the Desert Moon table.  Honestly, these are few and far between though, as pq quality examples just don’t flow down the river by my table.  You have to go fishing for them across the whole bourse, and even then they are a rare breed, not the typical carp one can snag with your hook and line easliy, but like a nice fat brook trout in that deepest eddy.  Alas.

 

A subset of these are O-Mint examples.  Here I present 3 new coins to offer from the New Orleans Mint that are rare and very cool.  None of these dates I was able to obtain in 15 years of building my previous collection, because well, they are simply that rare, especially for examples that meet the expectations of CAC/CACG.  So I confess to be thrilled to offer them here. 

 

The first is an 1856-O Liberty Quarter Eagle in CACG AU58.  Sure, Doug says, in his book ‘Gold Coins of the New Orleans Mint, 1839-1909’, that there are 125-150 of these extant.  So one should be able to see them come up online or at the bourse at any major auction house or convention each year, right?  But in reality, as I note in the auction description, it is the 4th rarest of the O-Mint Quarter Eagles, and 2nd rarest for high grade (out of 14).  So far in 3 years of Desert Moon, this is the first example I have found that meet our expectations, and in fact, I have not really seen others at all.  This is not surprising as there were only 21,000 minted, and so few of those survive until today. As with all 3 examples offered here, you can click on the image below and it will take you to the listing on Desert Moon.

 

The second is an 1843-O Small Letters Liberty Half Eagle in PCGS XF45/CAC.  Like the 1856-0 Quarter Eagle, it is one of the rarest O-Mint Half Eagles ranking #3 in rarity amongst the 16 from 1840 to 1909.  Doug posits that there are only 90-100 extant.  So these are just not stocked at the hatcheries and aren’t swimming around on the bourse or online too often.

 

Finally, I honestly jumped for joy when this 3rd one was offered to me at CSNS.  As soon as the dealer handed it to me it was OMG, I saw it and thought, ‘an O-Mint Eagle from 1881!, Oh, Old Green Holder.  Hold it, is that a Gold Sticker?  Well yes DM, it is!!!!!’.  For background, while O-Mint with Motto Eagles from 1888 to 1906, are reasonably available from time to time, with upper 100s to 1000s of each date extant (were minted in higher numbers), the 5 issues from 1879 to 1883, are less common to find, with their extant populations about 50 to 500 and CAC/CACG populations are 10 to 45 (were minted in lower numbers).  Finding one in an OGH with a Gold Sticker in AU?  This one.  Yes.  Only this one.  Pop. 1.  And as such near the top of the condition census in CAC/CACG for the date.  It Ranks #4 in rarity of 16 for the With Motto O-Mint Eagles according to Doug.

 

The reason why the O-Mint Eagles from 1879-1883 were minted in substantially less quantities than later issues was largely because of the Bland-Allison Act of 1878 that got the 4 mints at the time cranking out Silver coins and a lot of Morgan dollars.  But some gold was available, coming in from Mexico and other sources.  So a ‘few’ Eagles were made (mintages of 800-10,820 for the 5 dates), and Double Eagles were made in 1879 only (and last ones at New Orleans).  Hence these early O-Mint With Motto Eagles are tied into the history of mining, trade, and production activities of this window in time.  They are also very rare as noted above.

 

In either case, we present to you 3 pq and very cool rare O-Mint Gold for your perusal here!  Please have a look and thanks for your interest!

 

            You can click on the images below and it will take you to the listing on our DM website. 

           

 

As always, please contact us through desertmoonnm@yahoo.com if you have an interest in any of our coins.

 

Thanks for reading!

Best, DM


4th Rarest O-Mint Quarter Eagle
4th Rarest O-Mint Quarter Eagle


3rd Rarest O-Mint Half Eagle
3rd Rarest O-Mint Half Eagle


4rth Rarest O-Mint With Motto Eagle
4rth Rarest O-Mint With Motto Eagle

 
 
 
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