Since gold specie payments were suspended at the end of 1861, it is little wonder that the Philadelphia Mint limited Half Eagle production during the latter years of the Civil War. In 1865, the final year of the war, only 1,295 pieces were produced, a mintage figure that is the fifth lowest in the entire 1795-1929 Half Eagle series. Those few coins that survived the rampant exportation and melting of the era typically grade VF or XF, and Breen notes that this date is 'prohibitively rare above [those grades].'