The coins of the Fairmont Collection come from various, well-known points in American history. What all of these coins have in common is their time spent sitting in European banks. Fairmont Collection coins wound up in Europe as a result of international commerce, but in most cases, it was the outbreak of World War I in 1914 that result in these coins becoming lost in the shuffle and sitting in bank vaults until the 2010s when the coins were repatriated to the United States. Fairmont Collection coins offer you an excellent chance to collect US coinage with a rich history behind each strike.
The $5 Liberty Gold Half Eagle was one of two major denominations, alongside the $10 Liberty Eagle, to find itself in European banks and repatriated later in the Fairmont Collection. The 1846 Liberty Half Eagle has its own unique tale. In particular, the US Mint struck these coins with two different types of date mark fonts on the coins.
These particular 1846 $5 Liberty Half Eagles from Philadelphia have the Large Date strike. While dates and mint marks are more common in the pattern-buying of collectors, the Small Format-Large Format division of 1846 Liberty Half Eagles makes owning each of these options within the overall mintage of 395,942 pieces that year a treasure.