 1846/5 'Overdate' WB.102. Medium Date. Errant 6. Brilliant Uncirculated, and bordering on the Choice category. Reflective fields show areas of lighter silver, but the coin is generally medium gold in color with a dash of blue. Boldly struck throughout, and a slightly later die state of this obverse with a thin die crack through the base of the '46' and the die may have been lapped. The obverse fields show trivial handling marks and the coin is identifiable by a minor nick in the field below the branch end on the reverse. For the specialist, this is one of the most desirable die pairings of the year and a considerable rarity in any Uncirculated grade.
Noted specialists Randy Wiley and Bill Bugert no longer believe that the obverse shows a '5' under the '6', but the evidence points to a poorly finished hub. For many years in the past, the present coin would have been considered an overdate by most numismatists. As always, new discoveries are being made, and occasionally overdates are found to be repunchings, as may well be the case here. This coin is certainly a worthy example of this die pairing, with a regal pedigree and desirable surfaces.
Ex The Queller Family Collection of Half Dollars (Stack's, October 2002, lot 494; Reed Hawn Collection (Stack's, August 1973, lot 152).
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