1909-O Indian Head Half Eagle

Key date

The key of the series, and the last gold coin ever struck at the New Orleans Mint. It is the only New Orleans issue of this design, 34,200 pieces, and the mint closed to coinage soon afterwards.

Mintage

Business strikes: 34,200
Mint: New Orleans (O)
Mintage rank: 1 of 24

Rank 1 is the lowest business-strike mintage in the series. Mintage is what the Mint produced, not what survives. Gold coin was recalled in 1933 under Executive Order 6102 and the Treasury melted much of what it held, so survival across this series runs well below the figures below. The 1929 is the extreme case: a six-figure mintage and a genuine rarity.

Reading the figure

Of the 4,382,020 struck across all mints in 1909, this issue accounts for under 1%. Denver struck more than a hundred times as many that year. The 1909 split ran Denver 3,423,560, Philadelphia 627,060, San Francisco 297,200 and New Orleans 34,200. The series median is 408,000, so fewer than half as many of these were struck as a typical date. Series-wide output rose sharply that year: 4,382,020 against 807,845 in 1908. 1909 was the largest production year of the entire series.

Every sentence above is computed from the mintage table on this page, not asserted separately.

Scarcity tier

Key date

Assigned from reported mintage alone: under 750,000 is a key date, under 2,500,000 is a semi-key.

This is a reproducible label derived from the mintage column, not a market valuation and not a Coin Curator price opinion. The same thresholds apply to every series on this site. Several dates are far harder or far easier to obtain than their mintage implies; where that is true, it is stated above.

Grading an incuse design is not like grading any other. 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. Read the full note on the series page.

What to check before buying

Specific to the 1909-O:

1This is the date the series is counterfeited for, usually by adding an O to a Philadelphia coin. The incuse design makes tooling harder to see than on a raised design, so certification by a major service is the practical baseline.
2Compare the O mintmark shape and position against published photographs of genuine examples.

And for any certified coin

Verify the certification number on the grading service’s own lookup rather than from a photograph of the label, match the listing images to the certification record including grade and any variety attribution, look for cleaning, compare the mintmark against published photographs of the genuine issue, and read the return policy before buying. The grading guide covers each of these in full.

Coin Curator does not grade, authenticate, or appraise coins, and publishes no price or population data. These are verification steps, not a valuation.

Verify a certification number

Look a 1909-Ocertification number up on the service’s own site. A photograph of a label proves nothing.

PCGS cert lookup NGC cert lookup ANACS cert lookup

Each service publishes its own guarantee with conditions and exclusions. Compare PCGS, NGC and ANACS.

Find a 1909-O for sale

Opens an eBay search for this exact date and mint. Coin Curator does not list inventory, hold stock, or quote prices; verify each listing, seller, and return policy directly.

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Common questions

How many 1909-O Indian Head half eagles were minted?

The New Orleans Mint struck 34,200 1909-O Indian Head half eagles for circulation. That is the 1st lowest business-strike mintage of the 24 date and mintmark combinations in the series.

Is the 1909-O Indian Head half eagle a key date?

Coin Curator labels it a key date, assigned from reported mintage alone: under 750,000 struck is a key date and under 2,500,000 is a semi-key. The same thresholds are used for every series on this site, so the tiers are comparable between them. That label describes production, not market value or how hard the coin is to find today. The key of the series, and the last gold coin ever struck at the New Orleans Mint. It is the only New Orleans issue of this design, 34,200 pieces, and the mint closed to coinage soon afterwards.

What should I check before buying a 1909-O Indian Head half eagle?

Verify the certification number on the grading service's own lookup page, match the listing photographs to the certification record, check for cleaning, and compare the mintmark shape and position against published photographs of the genuine issue. This is the date the series is counterfeited for, usually by adding an O to a Philadelphia coin. The incuse design makes tooling harder to see than on a raised design, so certification by a major service is the practical baseline.

Guides for this coin

All guides →

Market Context

Pre-1933 Gold Coin Collecting and Market Context

Research Saint-Gaudens, Liberty Head, and Indian Head gold by exact type, date, grade, surfaces, current metal value, and coin-specific evidence.

1 min read Buying Guide

How to Spot a Counterfeit or Doctored Coin

Use weight, dimensions, surfaces, mintmark details, holder inspection, and certification records as screening checks. Learn the warning signs of altered coins and fake slabs.

1 min read Education

What Makes a Coin a “Key Date”, and Why It Drives Value

Coins from the same series can differ sharply in availability and demand. Learn how date, mintmark, variety, grade, and surfaces shape key-date research.