In his still-valuable 1980 reference, David Akers writes of the 1852 eagle, 'The mintage of the 1852 is fairly high by No Motto Eagle standards and almost identical to that of the 1851-O which is only a moderately scarce date. However, the 1852 is very scarce in all grades and rare in AU condition. In full mint state it is very rare and I have seen only two uncirculated examples that I called 'choice' along with three or four others of average (bagmarked) quality. The 1852 is similar in overall rarity to the 1848 and more rare than the 1847, 1847-O, 1849, 1850, 1851-O and 1853. It is certainly not the 'common date' type coin the mintage and the standard pricing guides would lead one to believe.'      

More recently Garrett and Guth, in their 2006 gold Encyclopedia, note that 'the 1852 eagle is a relatively common date, but nowhere near as common as the mintage indicates. For instance, the population (all major services combined) of the 1852 is only 699 coins versus over 1,000 for the 1851-O--yet the two dates have nearly identical mintages. Extremely Fine and AU coins are scarce, and Mint State examples are downright rare.?