1909-P Indian Head Half Eagle
Key dateA Philadelphia issue from the years when the half eagle still moved in ordinary commerce, before production stopped in 1916.
Mintage
- Business strikes
- 627,060
- Mint
- Philadelphia (no mintmark)
- Mintage rank
- 17 of 24
- Proofs struck
- 78
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
Among the 9 Philadelphia issues in the series it is the 5th smallest. Of the 4,382,020 struck across all mints in 1909, this issue accounts for 14%. Denver struck 5.5 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. 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.
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Listed now on eBay
Search current eBay listingsLast recorded sales
Newest recorded sale Sep 27, 2026Previously recorded eBay sales of certified 1909-P Indian Head half eagles, grouped by grade band. Every figure below is a completed sale of a PCGS, NGC or ANACS coin in a straight grade. This is a record of what changed hands, not a current price guide, an appraisal, or a prediction of what yours is worth.
Mint State
MS60 and above$1,225
Median of 12 sales
- Lowest
- $959
- Highest
- $3,178
The 4 most recent sales
- $1,225PCGS MS62 · Sep 27, 2026
- $1,205PCGS MS62 · Sep 26, 2026
- $1,593NGC MS63 · Sep 19, 2026
- $1,200NGC MS61 · Sep 14, 2026
Completed eBay sales by price, grade and date. Individual listings are not linked.
How to read these
- The median is the middle sale after removing outliers. The range is every sale kept, including the outliers, so you can see how wide the market actually is.
- Grade drives most of the difference. A band with three sales tells you far less than a band with thirty, and the count is shown so you can weigh it.
- Sales of coins in “Details”, “Genuine” or cleaned holders are excluded, as are proofs, replicas, lots, and mounted coins. Those sell at prices that would not describe the coin on this page.
- So is any sale priced below what this same date fetches in a lower grade, which is impossible for a real coin and is how a counterfeit in a convincing holder gives itself away.
- 1 further qualifying sale fell in a grade band with fewer than 3 sales, which is too few to report a median from, so it is not shown.
Coin Curator does not grade, authenticate, or appraise coins, and holds no licensed price guide or population data. How this data is collected.
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
Nothing about this date calls for a check beyond the ones that apply to any certified coin.
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 holds no licensed price guide or population data. Where this page shows recent sold prices, they are records of completed eBay sales, not a valuation of any particular coin. These are verification steps, not an appraisal.
Verify a certification number
Look a 1909-P certification number up on the service’s own site. A photograph of a label proves nothing.
Each service publishes its own guarantee with conditions and exclusions. Compare PCGS, NGC and ANACS.
Find a 1909-P for sale
Opens an eBay search for this exact date and mint. Coin Curator does not list inventory, hold stock, or set prices; verify each listing, seller, and return policy directly.
As an eBay Partner Network Affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Disclosure.
Common questions
How many 1909-P Indian Head half eagles were minted?
The Philadelphia Mint struck 627,060 1909-P Indian Head half eagles for circulation. That is the 17th lowest business-strike mintage of the 24 date and mintmark combinations in the series.
Is the 1909-P 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. A Philadelphia issue from the years when the half eagle still moved in ordinary commerce, before production stopped in 1916.
What should I check before buying a 1909-P 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.
Related dates
Guides for this coin
All guides →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 readBuying GuideHow 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 readEducationWhat 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.
1 min readBuying GuideApproachable Key-Date Coins to Research First
Seven dates that teach scarcity, identification, grade tradeoffs, and counterfeit-aware buying, without promising a fixed price or resale result.
1 min readMintage 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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