5 Dollars, United States, 1838
date: label: Date made
content: 1838
name: label: mint
content: U.S. Mint, Charlotte
label: designer
content: Kneass, William
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: One (1) 5 dollar coin
label: Description (Brief)
content: United States, 1838
label: Description (Brief)
content: Obverse Image: Left-facing Liberty head with curled hair and wearing headband. 13 stars along coin edge.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Obverse Text: LIBERTY / 1838 / C
label: Description (Brief)
content: Reverse Image: Eagle with wings outstretched clutching arrows and branch in talons, shield over chest with vertical stripes on bottom part and horizontal stripes on top part.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Reverse Text: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA / 5 D.
label: Description
content: To process the gold and silver being mined in new locations, the federal government passed legislation to open three new branch mints in 1835: in Charlotte, North Carolina; Dahlonega, Georgia; and New Orleans, Louisiana. The first two would only strike coins from local gold. The third would mint coins from silver as well as from gold, because those two metals were pouring into the Crescent City from Latin America.
label: Description
content: All three branch facilities opened their doors in 1838. The New Orleans Mint was a success from the very beginning. The other two suffered growing pains but finally reached full production in the 1850s. All three closed during the Civil War, but New Orleans eventually reopened in 1879 and remained a major player in the country's monetary system until the first decade of the twentieth century. Charlotte and Dahlonega stayed closed.
label: Description
content: A way was sought to distinguish the products of these new mints from those of the original one. Philadelphia had never marked its coins-there had been no need, with no other coiners in existence. But now a way was devised to show which coins came from where.
label: Description
content: A mint mark, consisting of a single letter, would be placed on each of the products of the branch Mints-an O for New Orleans, a D for Dahlonega, and a C for Charlotte. The mint marks briefly appeared on the coins' obverse, but then they were relegated to the reverse, where they remained.
label: Description
content: Collectors call the 1838 Charlotte half eagle a "one-year type": coins of this design with the obverse mint mark were only struck during that single year. There were about seventeen thousand of them, compared with over a quarter million at Philadelphia.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place of issue
content: United States: North Carolina, Charlotte
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: National Numismatic Collection
label: See more items in
content: Coins
label: See more items in
content: Numismatics
label: See more items in
content: Coins, Currency and Medals
label: See more items in
content: Legendary Coins
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: Zoomable Image and Details
label: Related Publication
content: Glossary of Coins and Currency Terms
label: Related Web Publication
content: http://americanhistory.si.edu/coins/glossary.cfm
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1984.1046.0372
label: accession number
content: 1984.1046
label: catalog number
content: 1984.1046.0372
objectType: label: Object Name
content: coin
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: gold (overall metal)
label: Physical Description
content: 0 (overall die axis)
label: Physical Description
content: 0 (overall die axis measurement)
label: Physical Description
content: struck (overall production method)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 1.4 mm x 22.3 mm; 1/16 in x 7/8 in