1840-C Half Eagle (1840-C $5) NGC MS61. This rare, mint state, Southern branch mint 1840-C Half Eagle is tied for second finest at NGC. This 1840-C Half Eagle is well struck with full details on the highest points of Libertys hair, the centers of the stars, the eagles neck, and the area to the lower left of the shield. Muted mint luster is seen in protected areas, especially so on the obverse. No wear is seen on either side, as expected for a mint state coin; and the surfaces are original, and, for the grade, clean and free of individual distractions.

Christian Gobrecht designed the Coronet Head, No Motto half eagle, which was minted from 1839 to 1866. He modified the previous half eagles denomination, 5D. He replaced the numeral with the word FIVE. The design shows a profile of Liberty facing left, surrounded by thirteen stars, her hair tied with beads in a bun, wearing a coronet on which is inscribed LIBERTY. She also has two long loose curls, one on the back of her neck and one from behind her ear. Dentils are at the periphery of both sides of the coin. The reverse is the heraldic eagle design, which shows the eagle facing left with wings outstretched, holding olive branch and arrows in the correct claws with a Union shield attached to its chest. The legend UNITED STATES OF AMERICA surrounds the reverse with the denomination at the bottom. Dots precede and follow the denomination separating it from the legend. The mintmark is below the juncture of the olive branch and arrow feathers above the VE in FIVE.

Christian Gobrecht was the third Chief Engraver at Mint in Philadelphia. He was born in Hanover, Pennsylvania in 1785. His father, a German immigrant was a reverend. His mother, Elizabeth Sands was a descendent of the early settlers of Plymouth Colony. In 1818 Gobrecht married Mary Hewes. After an apprenticeship, he became an engraver of clockworks in Baltimore. Later, in Philadelphia, he joined a banknote engraving firm where he had an excellent job. He invented a machine that enabled one to convert a three-dimensional medal into an illustration. Understandably, Gobrecht was reluctant to join the Mint staff. In order to persuade him to leave the engraving firm, Mint Director Patterson convinced Chief Engraver William Kneass, incapacitated by a stroke, to give up a significant part of his salary so more money would be available to hire the new employee. Gobrechts first work for the United States Mint was in 1826 when he made dies as an assistant to Kneass. When Kneass was unable to continue working because of the stroke, Gobrecht did all the die and pattern work. He was Chief Engraver from 1840 until his death in 1844. Famous for his Liberty Seated dollar obverse, which was used for all denominations of silver coinage, he was responsible for also designing the Liberty Head motif that was first used on the gold eagle, and then on the half cent, the cent, and the gold quarter and half eagles.

In the 1790s gold was accidentally discovered in North Carolina. The first United States Gold Rush took place in the early 1800s in North Carolina and Georgia. In the area around Charlotte, North Carolina almost 100 gold mines were in operation. Second only to farming, prospecting for gold became the main source of employment in North Carolina. The most gold produced in the United States came from North Carolina until 1848, when it was discovered in California.

The gold that was produced at Charlotte had to be refined and standardized so it would have commercial value. Private mints like the Bechtlers and Templeton Reids opened to assay the new gold and convert it to coinage. In order to standardize this coinage and because transportation to Philadelphia was so poor as a result of bandits, unfriendly Indians, and poor roads, a branch mint in Charlotte was opened in 1836.

Two years later the first half eagle was struck at Charlotte. Quarter eagles were minted later in 1838 and gold dollars in 1849. However, no coins were made in 1845 because there was a fire, and the entire structure burned to the ground.

All Charlotte Mint coins have the C mintmark on the reverse except for the first two years quarter and half eagles, which had them on the obverse between the truncation and the date.

The 1840-C half eagle had an original mintage of 18,992; however, most coins circulated extensively and show wear and planchet irregularities. AU coins are rare, and only a few coins have survived in mint state. In its population report, NGC shows this coin tied for second finest with 2 others in MS61 with 2 better. At PCGS there are 0 in MS61 with 3 better.