The 1929 is alone among Roaring Twenties issues in the Indian half eagle series. It is actually the first five-dollar gold delivery since 1916, and the last of this denomination produced for commercial use. At 662,000 coins struck, the 1929 actually boasts one of the higher mintages in the Indian series. Even so, it is firmly established as the leading rarity of the type in terms of total number of coins believed extant, including both circulated and Mint State examples. Clearly the vast majority of coins were still in federal hands when the government stopped paying out gold coins at par in 1933. These undistributed pieces, along with examples of many other now-famous rarities in the various 20th century gold series, were eventually melted by the federal government in 1937. This chain of events created a numismatic rarity in the 1929 half eagle, the few survivors of which are eagerly sought by today's advanced collectors.

The example to the left was sold by Stack's Bowers Galleries in the November 2012 Baltimore Auction, where it realized $64,625.