1845 Liberty Seated Half Dollar. WB-2. Rarity-3. MS-64 (PCGS). CAC.

1845 Liberty Seated Half Dollar. WB-2. Rarity-3. MS-64 (PCGS). CAC.，This coin offers high Condition Census quality for an eagerly sought issue among 1840s half dollars. Warmly and evenly patinated in a blend of iridescent gold and pearl gray, both sides display full mint luster in a soft satin texture. Virtually full in strike and exceptionally smooth, even the finest collection of Liberty Seated half dollars would be enhanced by this handsome piece.<p>Half dollar production at the Philadelphia Mint dipped to just 589,000 circulation strikes in 1845, one of the lowest outputs for this denomination from that decade. Long regarded as a key date issue among specialists, even EF and AU survivors are scarce. In Mint State the 1845 is a classic rarity, and the present example numbers among the finest certified. Only six die marriages have been positively confirmed, enumerated in the excellent new reference <em>A Register of Liberty Seated Half Dollar Varieties, Volume V: Philadelphia Mint, 1839 to 1852</em> by Bill Bugert. WB-2 represented here is identifiable by an obverse die line in the denticles outside stars 3 and 4 and vertical die lines on the reverse within the olive leaves.<p>，From the A.J. Vanderbilt Collection. Earlier ex David Lawrences sale of the Richmond Collection, Part III, March 2005, lot 1677; Joel Cherry of Mercury Numismatics, June 2007; Eugene H. Gardner; Heritages sale of the Eugene H. Gardner Collection, June 2014, lot 30489; via Larry Stack at Stacks Bowers Galleries.，