1846-O $2.50 MS(PCGS#7743)

February 2026 Showcase Auction - The James A. Stack, Sr. Collection Part II

Auctioneer

Stack's Bowers

Lot Number

23007

Grade

AU58

Price

6,600

Lot Description

One of the most attractive 1846-O quarter eagles that your cataloger (JLA) has had the privilege of preparing for auction in a professional career that began in 1999. The surfaces are outstanding with a full endowment of bright, vivid, yellow-gold color backlit by subtle greenish-olive. Strike is a problem for this issue, as it is for many of those from the New Orleans Mint of the 1840s and 1850s, and the astute numismatist would be wise to be forgiving of the 1846-O in this regard lest they overlooked an opportunity to acquire an otherwise outstanding example. The Stack coin is noticeably soft on the obverse within the hair curls above Liberty's brow, throughout the word LIBERTY on the coronet, and at the top of the head, the detail on the reverse similarly lacking in and around the center. Bolder detail is seen elsewhere, however, and with strong frosty luster and minimally marked surfaces joining the aforementioned coloration, this is a decidedly PQ example of the issue at the threshold of full Mint State preservation. It will surely impress knowledgeable Southern gold enthusiasts and result in spirited bidding.<p>This issue has a limited mintage of just 62,000 pieces, and Doug Winter (2025) accounts for only 175 to 225 survivors in all grades. The 1846-O is the sixth-rarest New Orleans Mint quarter eagle and surpasses such other issues in this series as the 1847-O, 1850-O, 1851-O and 1852-O. On the paper envelope that accompanies this coin, Mr. Stack noted: "look for over date - yes?" In his 1988 <em>Encyclopedia</em> Walter Breen seemed to confirm traditional numismatic suspicion about an 1846/4-O quarter eagle when he carried the variety as his #6186, cataloged as:<p><em>1846 O "Overdate"</em><p><em>Repunched 4; microscopic traces of 4 within 6, like 6181. Robison:137.</em><p>Modern numismatic scholarship has confirmed that the New Orleans Mint used only one obverse die for this issue and, more significantly, that it is not an overdate. As explained in our (Bowers and Merena's) cataloging for the PCGS MS-64 example in the October 1999 Bass II Sale, lot 389:<p><em>What, then, is the stub under the final 6? Upon examination of this piece and also others from this logotype punch, it seems that the logotype was shifted, and a repunching occurred. There is a small line in the top of the 6 that might lead someone to think it is a diagonal from a 4, but within the base of the 6 the repunchings are all curved or circular in appearance, indicating a repunching of a 6, certainly not a 4. Related repunchings, differing in some detail, occur among other dies.</em><p>Winter identifies three reverse dies for this issue, that represented by the Stack coin accounting for the majority of known examples. On this die the O mintmark is located entirely to the left of the fraction bar.