Indian Head Half Eagle Dates & Mintmarks
All 24 issues of the $5 series, 1908 through 1929, in Bela Lyon Pratt's incuse design. Struck at Philadelphia, Denver and San Francisco, plus a single New Orleans issue in 1909 that was the last gold coin ever made at that mint. No half eagles at all were struck between 1917 and 1928.
No prices, price guides, or population counts appear anywhere in this catalog. Coin Curator does not hold licensed data for any of those, so it publishes none. How we work.
24
Date/mint combinations
18
Key dates
under 750k struck
5
Semi-keys
under 2.5M struck
4
Mints
P, D, S, O
| Date | Mint | Mintage | Rank | Tier | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1908-D | Denver | 148,000 | 4 | Key date | — |
| 1908-P | Philadelphia | 577,845 | 14 | Key date | 1 documented variety · 167 proofs |
| 1908-S | San Francisco | 82,000 | 3 | Key date | — |
| 1909-D | Denver | 3,423,560 | 24 | Common date | — |
| 1909-O | New Orleans | 34,200 | 1 | Key date | — |
| 1909-P | Philadelphia | 627,060 | 17 | Key date | 78 proofs |
| 1909-S | San Francisco | 297,200 | 11 | Key date | — |
| 1910-D | Denver | 193,600 | 6 | Key date | — |
| 1910-P | Philadelphia | 604,000 | 16 | Key date | 250 proofs |
| 1910-S | San Francisco | 770,200 | 19 | Semi-key | — |
| 1911-D | Denver | 72,500 | 2 | Key date | — |
| 1911-P | Philadelphia | 915,000 | 21 | Semi-key | 139 proofs |
| 1911-S | San Francisco | 1,416,000 | 23 | Semi-key | — |
| 1912-P | Philadelphia | 790,000 | 20 | Semi-key | 144 proofs |
| 1912-S | San Francisco | 392,000 | 12 | Key date | — |
| 1913-P | Philadelphia | 915,901 | 22 | Semi-key | 99 proofs · see note |
| 1913-S | San Francisco | 408,000 | 13 | Key date | — |
| 1914-D | Denver | 247,000 | 9 | Key date | — |
| 1914-P | Philadelphia | 247,000 | 8 | Key date | 125 proofs |
| 1914-S | San Francisco | 263,000 | 10 | Key date | — |
| 1915-P | Philadelphia | 588,000 | 15 | Key date | 75 proofs |
| 1915-S | San Francisco | 164,000 | 5 | Key date | — |
| 1916-S | San Francisco | 240,000 | 7 | Key date | — |
| 1929-P | Philadelphia | 662,000 | 18 | Key date | see note |
Rank 1 is the lowest business-strike mintage in the series. Tiers are assigned from reported mintage alone: under 750,000 struck is a key date, under 2,500,000 a semi-key. The same thresholds apply to every series on this site, so tiers are comparable between them. That is a production measure, not a market judgement, and not a statement about how many survive.
Shopping the series
Individual date pages open a search for that exact date and mint. This one covers the series. Verify every listing, seller, and return policy directly.
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Common questions
How many Indian Head half eagle dates and mintmarks are there?
24: 9 from Philadelphia, 9 from San Francisco, 5 from Denver and 1 from New Orleans. Half eagles were struck every year from 1908 to 1916 and then not again until 1929, so the series divides into a continuous early run and a single late issue.
What is the key date?
The 1909-O is the only New Orleans coin in this series and the last gold coin ever struck at that mint, which closed to coinage shortly afterwards. At 34,200 pieces it is the key of the series by a wide margin, and it is the date the series is counterfeited for, usually by adding an O to a Philadelphia coin.
What does incuse mean, and why does it matter when buying?
The devices on this coin are sunk into the surface rather than raised above it, which is unique to the Indian Head quarter eagle and half eagle among regular United States coins. Two consequences follow for a buyer. The fields, not the design, are the highest surface, so they take the wear and show marks that a raised design would hide, and the usual visual cues for grade do not transfer from other series. And the recessed design gives a counterfeiter more room to work undetected, which is part of why this denomination is among the more heavily faked in U.S. gold. On the scarce dates the certification record is doing more work here than usual.
Why is the 1929 rare if 662,000 were struck?
Because almost none reached circulation. It was struck thirteen years after the previous half eagle and four years before gold was recalled, so most of the mintage sat in Treasury holdings and was melted in the 1930s. It is one of the clearest cases on the site of a six-figure mintage saying nothing useful about availability.
Why does this catalog give 915,901 for the 1913 where other tables give 916,099?
Because 916,099 appears to double-count the proofs. Three published tables that report proofs separately all give 915,901 business strikes, and the year saw 99 proofs; those sum to the 916,000 that some references print as a combined total. The 916,099 figure adds the 99 proofs to that combined figure a second time. This catalog reports business strikes everywhere, so 915,901 is used and the issue page says why.
Does Coin Curator publish Indian Head half eagle values?
No. This catalog carries U.S. Mint production figures, historical context, and documented varieties. It does not publish prices, valuations, price guides, or population and census counts, because Coin Curator does not hold licensed data for any of those. That matters more on a gold series than on any other, since these coins carry both a bullion value and a numismatic one and neither is published here. Pages link to the grading services' own certification lookups and to marketplace searches so you can check current evidence yourself.
Mintage sources
Mintage figures are U.S. Mint production records, cross-checked against the published tables below on 2026-08-02. Where those tables disagree, the disagreement is disclosed on the affected page rather than resolved silently.
- Numista, Indian Head half eagle — Reports business strikes and proofs as separate rows. Used as the business-strike figures here.
- IndianHalfEagle.com, mintage tables — Independent table with proofs on a separate page. Agrees on all 24 issues.
- USA Coin Book, Indian Head half eagle — Fourth table, whose Philadelphia figures add that year's proofs into the total. Used to confirm the proof-inclusion convention rather than as a primary source.
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