Small Date variety./strong>

There are Small Date and Large Date varieties for the 1846-P half eagle and the former is rarer by a large margin. In fact, the 1846 Small Date is close to ten times rarer based on population data. It is the third scarcest pre-Civil War Philadelphia half eagle of this design after the 1842 Large Letters and Small Letters and it is extremely hard to find in Uncirculated.

This is only the second Uncirculated 1846 Small Date half eagle I have seen and it has a very choice obverse with nice natural medium orange-gold color; the reverse is less choice but it also shows natural coloration. As is typical for this variety, both sides are a bit scuffy with the reverse showing more pronounced marks in the fields.

Heritage 12/11: 4545, graded MS61 by PCGS and approved by CAC, sold reasonably at $4,313. The finest known, a PCGS MS62, last sold in February 2000 and it has not been back on the market since then. PCGS has graded just two in MS61 with one finer.

If this were a Charlotte or Dahlonega half eagle of comparable in this grade, it would be priced in the $15,000-20,000 range.