United States: 1911 gold Indian Head half eagle ($5.00), Reverse Struck Through mint error

United States: 1911 gold Indian Head half eagle ($5.00), Reverse Struck Through mint error

PCGS MS62. Cert. #41437992.

Numista-18681, Krause-Mishler-129.

Mintage: 915,000.

Ex-Kearney Coin Center, LLC, Kearney, Nebraska, via Collectors Corner storefront, 16 March 2023. Purchased in the slab.

This Mint State $5 Indian is pedigreed to the Fairmont Collection, an enormous accumulation of pre-1933 United States gold coins which came to market via Stacks Bowers starting around May of 2018. They were said to have come from a European bank and had been off the market for 75-125+ years.

That was mildly interesting to me when I later read up on it, but I also found this coin interesting because it has a mint error. There is a struck through (aka "strike through") error on the reverse below the eagle. This was caused by some foreign object that was present on the die when the coin was struck, which created a sunken depression along the tops of the "... E • DO ..." letters in FIVE • DOLLARS. While this is relatively minor as errors go, it is the only mint error I have ever owned on a gold coin.

Initially I did not find this coin online by searching for the Fairmont pedigree, which I had never heard of previously, nor for the error, but rather by browsing listings of coins dated 1911, which was my paternal grandmother's birthyear. When there is an opportunity, I like to represent the birthyears of parents and grandparents (as well as my own) in my coin collection.



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