Though a mintage of 34,641 is recorded for the year, the vast majority of coins struck in 1821 were probably dated 1820. Regardless of the dates the coins bore when struck, most half eagles were exported almost instantly, worth more as bullion than their five-dollar face value. The United States Mint served the merchant community as a free assayer and packager of gold to be exported, exerting effort that was intended to give the nation a circulating medium but instead only helped exporters grow wealthier.

A select committee of the House of Representatives was called, chaired by Ezekiel Whitman of Massachusetts. "There remains no longer any doubt that the gold coins of the United States are, by our laws, rated at a value lower than in almost any other country in comparison with that of silver," Whitman's investigation found. "Gold coins, both foreign and of the United States, have, in a great measure, disappeared; and from the best calculation that can be made, there is reason to apprehend that they will be wholly banished from circulation." Once they disappeared, coins like this did not surface again, and those that survived from this era to the present day in any condition are incredibly special.

The example to the left was sold by Stack's Bowers Galleries in the D. Brent Pogue Part IV Auction, where it realized $564,000.