By 1834, the spoils of American mines had been regularly exported for years, usually after being assayed and coined in Philadelphia at the expense of the American people. The complaints of bankers, newspapermen, and politicians about the lack of reliable gold coinage had become a chorus. Paper money was essentially unregulated, costing merchants dearly, as most banknotes were sold at steep discounts outside of the sphere of the issuing institution. "Silver is too heavy to be transported from place to place without inconvenience," Secretary of the Treasury Roger B. Taney wrote in 1834, and even the millions of half dollars produced annually were no substitute for large denomination gold coins. A group of New York bankers, led by former Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin, wrote to their Senators to complain that "the gold coins of the United States ... have become mere articles of merchandise, and are no longer to be considered as forming any portion of the metallic currency." Once coined, half eagles like this one were never spent as five dollars in gold, merely sold at their bullion value of $5.33. In time, they were almost always used in overseas payments, as gold remained the most convenient way to conduct international trade.

The half eagles delivered to the Treasurer of the Mint on June 30, 1834, were the last gold coins ever issued to the original standards defined by the Mint Act of 1792. After August 1, 1834, a depositor who brought $500 face value of these coins to the Mint would receive $533 worth of freshly minted gold coins. Most 1834 With Motto half eagles were thus converted to new coins, ones that actually saw use in commerce. While 50,141 half eagles of this type were coined in 1834, the combined population estimates in the Dannreuther-Bass text place the number of survivors in all grades today at fewer than 100 pieces. This variety accounts for 30 to 40 of those coins. The only other Plain 4 die marriage, BD-3, represents fewer than five.

The example to the left was sold by Stack's Bowers Galleries in the D. Brent Pogue Part IV Auction, where it realized $152,750.