1845 examples are usually well struck, but sometimes display slight softness on the star centrals and/or the upper left-wing feathers. Most high-grade business strikes are prooflike or semi-prooflike. Due to the low mintage, the dies didn’t wear enough to eliminate their prooflike appearance. 1845 Die MarriagesThe following table summarizes the known die marriages for 1845:
OC-1 is the only known business strike die marriage. The dies are normally clashed. The clashing is most visible in the field under Miss Liberty’s right arm. Examples are known with a single clash and with two clashes, the latter being the most common. We’ve seen a few examples with perfect dies, no signs of clashing, but this die state seems to be quite rare. Of the 20 estimated proof survivors 5 or 6 are mishandled or lightly circulated. Four of these are in problem-free holders. The remainder are graded as problem-free proofs and vary from PR61 to PR67. The finest known is the PR67 example slabbed by NGC and pedigreed to the Pittman and Kaufman collections. OC-P1 is the most often seen proof die marriage. It shows major repunching on the 84, most notable on the 8. The OC-P2 variety appears to be extremely rare. We found records of only two sales in the Heritage archives. Both examples were sold in NGC PR65 holders, though the holder numbers were different. Based on photo matching we can’t confirm that they are the same, so we’ve assumed that they represent two different coins. A coin in the National Collection at the Smithsonian is reported to be this die marriage, but we haven’t viewed it to confirm that attribution. Breen lists a possible third proof die marriage, an obverse with a normal date paired with a reverse different from Reverse 1840 PA. He cites the coin in the National Coin Collection as an example. To date we’ve been unable to confirm this die marriage. We hope to review the national collection at some future date. If their 1845 proof is indeed an example of this die marriage we’ll add it to our reference at that time as OC-P3. 1845 Business Strike Emission SequenceWith only one business strike die marriage the emission sequence isn't terribly interesting.
1845 Proof Emission SequenceThe proof emission sequence is purely arbitrary. There was not enough wear on Reverse 1840 PA
to conclusively identify the sequence.
1845 Quick Finder ChartThe table below shows the characteristics that allow quick identification of the die marriages.
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Photo credits:
Obverse 1 and Reverse A:   NGC PR67, finest known, ex. Pittman/Kaufman, from the Heritage archives. |
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