Small Date variety.

The 1842-C Small date is the unquestioned key issue in the Charlotte half eagle series. Through no fault of its own, prices have dropped for this issue in the last decade but this is because most of the third-party slabbed examples are horribly overgraded. Choice, original examples are very rare.

This very choice VF example wouldn’t look out of place in a VF35 or even an EF40 holder. It shows lovely deep, natural reddish-gold and purplish-orange hues from years of storage in an old coin holder. The surfaces are clean and evenly worn with good detail including well over three-quarters of the feathers.

The only other CAC approved VF30 example of this issue, also slabbed by PCGS, brought $12,650 as Heritage 1/12: 4878 and it was far more worn than the present piece. Only three VF30′s have sold at auction in close to ten years.

If you are a serious collector of Charlotte half eagles and do not have the funds available to purchase a comparatively high grade 1842-C Small Date, you should give this coin serious consideration as it is one of the most pleasing examples I have seen in “collector” grades.

CAC has approved two in this grade with seven finer.