As the first issue with Christian Gobrecht's new portrait of Liberty, the 1839 half eagle assumes special importance for type collectors, particularly those who pursue first-year issues. The relatively large mintage of 118,143 half eagles this year obscures the rarity of this coin in Mint State. Circulated examples, though very popular, are relatively commonplace. There is significant duplication among the population data of lower-graded Mint State examples.

The example to the left was sold by Stack's Bowers Galleries in the D. Brent Pogue Part IV, where it realized $47,000.