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 third Uncirculated 1846 Small Date half eagle I have ever owned 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.

Goldberg 6/14: 1812, graded MS62 by NGC and not as nice as the present example in my opinion, sold for $5,640. The finest I am aware of is an NGC MS63 from the S.S. New York which sold for $18,975 as Stack’s 7/08: 2068; this coin has seawater surfaces.

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.