1846-C Liberty Head Quarter Eagle : A Collector’s Guide

By Charles Morgan and Hubert Walker for CoinWeek Notes …..
 

After a fire on July 27, 1844, destroyed the Charlotte branch mint facility and its machinery, Congress debated whether or not to rebuild it. United States Mint Director Robert Maskell Patterson provided his endorsement in the 1845 Mint Director’s Report:

“The question of rebuilding this establishment has been brought before Congress, and plans and estimates have been presented, which show the moderate cost at which it could be again placed in full operation. I will therefore merely take the liberty, at this time, to call attention to the fact, which, although it has long lost its novelty, still presents itself as an object of national interest, – that the region in which the Charlotte and Dahlonega branch mints are placed, contains gold mines as numerous and as rich as any in the world. They are, indeed, less productive at present than some of them, in consequence of the more profitable employment of labor in other branches of industry; yet it is worthy of note, that, in the course of the last two years, more than two millions of dollars worth of gold was offered for coinage, from this source alone; so that, doubtless, the production of the United States has not been exceeded by that of any other gold-mining country, excepting Siberian Russia, and perhaps the western coast of Africa.”

Reconstruction had concluded by the fall of 1846, and the renovated Charlotte Mint used one of two die pairs sent to it from Philadelphia earlier in the year to strike 4,808 1846-C Liberty Head Quarter Eagles in October. The mintmark placement shows the “C” buried into the arrow fletching and the branch stem. On the obverse, the date slopes gently down and to the right.

In Mint State, the 1846-C Liberty Head Quarter Eagle is one of the most difficult issues in the denomination to acquire. NGC and PCGS report a combined total of eight grading events at MS62 to MS64 and CAC has approved only one coin in Mint State (MS61). Contributing to this lack of Gems was the condition of the dies. The delay in deploying them allowed the dies to rust, which covered much of the obverse and reverse.

The Gaskill-Bareford coin is nice, according to Walter Breen. The Graves example is also reportedly nice.

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Market Data and Noteworthy Specimens

(PCGS MS63, pop ?, 11/2013). Winter-1, Only known dies.

Top Population: PCGS MS64 (1, 8/2024), NGC MS64 (2, 8/2024), and CAC MS61 (1:0 stickered:graded, 8/2024).

• PCGS MS64 #3545295: “The David Wilson Collection,” S.H. Chapman, March 1907, Lot 200; John H. Clapp; Clapp Collection sold en bloc to Louis E. Eliasberg, Sr., via Stack’s, 1942; “The Eliasberg Collection,” Bowers and Merena, October 1982, Lot 137; Stanley Elrod; Hugh Sconyers; Harry W. Bass, Jr. “The Harry W. Bass, Jr. Collection, Part II,” Bowers and Merena, October 1999, Lot 381; As NGC MS63. Nevada Collection; unknown intermediaries; As PCGS MS64 #3545295. Heritage Auctions, August 10, 2001, Lot 7610 – $33,350. Bass on insert. Crossed to PCGS, where the coin upgraded one point; Heritage Auctions, April 19, 2012, Lot 5216 – $54,625; Heritage Auctions, January 10, 2013, Lot 5822 – $47,000. Series of thin diagonal scratches across Liberty’s face. Nearly complete star radials. Well-struck for a Charlotte Mint coin.
• PCGS MS63 #06652080: Winthrop Carner; Paul Dingler to Heritage Coin Galleries, March 1994; As PCGS MS63 #50098522. “The Grand Lake Collection,” Heritage Auctions, February 2009, Lot 2470 – $27,600. As PCGS MS63 #06652080. Heritage Auctions, January 2012, Lot 4750 – $34,500; Heritage Auctions, June 4, 2020, Lot 3157 – $40,800. Dingler on insert. Sharply struck. Full star radials. Heritage notes recent but inconspicuous scratch on cheek.
• Est MS63: “Henry Herrman Collection,” Steve Ivy, July 1979.
• NGC MS62 #323875-001: Heritage Auctions, May 9, 2024, Lot 4531 – $18,600.
• NGC MS62 #656910-002: “The Thomas Melish Sale,” Abe Kosoff, April 1956, Lot 1144- $52,50; “The John Jay Pittman Collection,” David Akers, May 1998, Lot 1734; Heritage Auctions, January 1999, Lot 7868 – $32,500; “The Richard Genaitis Collection,” Heritage Auctions, August 10, 2001, Lot 7598 – $17,250.
• NGC MS62 #1293449-024: Heritage Auctions, February 23, 2001, Lot 6859 – $23,575; “The Ashland City Collection,” Heritage Auctions, January 11, 2003, Lot 4675 – $14,950. Reholdered. ASHLAND CITY on insert; “The Mississippi Collection,” September 19, 2008, Lot 3269 – $16,100. Reholdered. Pedigree removed; Heritage Auctions, February 6, 2009, Lot 2469 – $13,225; “The Bay State Collection, Part Two,” Heritage Auctions, July 31, 2009, Lot 1222 – $13,800; Heritage Auctions, April 25, 2014, Lot 6154 – $15,275. Diagonal tick marks in the right obverse field. Diagonal scratch from star 12.
• PCGS MS62: New Netherlands, November 1956, Lot 243; “The R.T. Wilder Collection,” Stack’s, December 1994 – $14,850; Heritage Auctions, January 8, 1999, Lot 7756 – $32,200. Copper discoloration to the right of star 11.
• PCGS MS62 #10003872: Stack’s Bowers, August 2015, Lot 10202 – $21,150.

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1846-C Liberty Head Quarter Eagle Coin Specifications

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