Half cent lovers, here's a scratched beauty to attribute, should you wish.

jesbroken

1805 Draped Bust Half Cent. Nice strike but unfortunately scratched out of meaness or boredom. Give me your attributions if you would.
Jim

Omegaraptor

1805, Large 5, Cohen-4, R-2.

Nice coin. It does help that half cents simply didn't use as many dies as large cents (as they just didn't strike as many coins).

Paradisefound

Always love the classic @jesbroken ❤️ I see no meanness but decades of sweet memories

ricko

Always sad to see what happens to some of these old coins. However, they were created for commerce and not for collectors..... So we take them as they come. Cheers, RickO

LanceNewmanOCC

kinda looks like graffiti

jesbroken

@Omegaraptor not a C-4...the 5 does not touch the bust.
The C-2 does not touch the base, but does not have the leaf covering the base of the T in Cent
The C-1 obviously does not have stems.
It is a C-3 as the 5 does not touch the bust and the leaf covers the base of the T in CENT.
Jim

C-4

C-3 as shown

NeophyteNumismatist

This one confuses me. The die crack through the one is a C-4 marker, and and the spike under the chin is another. The bulge in front of the face of the C-3 does not appear to be present (but I would prefer to judge that in-hand). The reverse of the C-3 and C-4 are made from the same dies, so we get nothing there.

Could this be a C-4 with a modified 5?

jesbroken

I see what you are saying, but yet here is another diagnostic missing from my coin that is evident on a C-4. Perhaps mine is a counterfeit with mixed areas. Gosh, I hope not. I hope @MrHalfcent checks in.
Jim

burfle23

This is a die marker for 1805 C-4 reverse as well:

My examples' 5s don't actually touch the bust either...

jesbroken

@burfle23 said:
This is a die marker for 1805 C-4 reverse as well:

My examples' 5s don't actually touch the bust either...

As does the C-3 with the same Diagnostic.
Jim

Omegaraptor

@ricko said:
Always sad to see what happens to some of these old coins. However, they were created for commerce and not for collectors..... So we take them as they come. Cheers, RickO

Another way of looking at it... Any half cent or large cent from this time period beat very tough odds to be in collectors' hands today. For every 1000 half cents struck, on average, maybe five or six have survived. The other 995? Melted during the War of 1812, melted by the Mint 1857-1890, fell out of pockets, fell underneath a floorboard, dropped in the dirt and yet to be recovered, etc. I'm not sad it got scratched so much as I'm glad it survived at all and us collectors today can still enjoy it.

burfle23

Still see C4! The "tip" of the 5 to the bust gets faint but to my eyes still there...

jesbroken

If it is a C-4, then that is what it is, I just hope it's not a counterfeit.
Jim

burfle23

Pretty sure it is not counterfeit; matches diagnostics of a genuine one and not the diagnostics of the known counterfeit ones!

may

Aww nice! I only have one, but somebody took their angry out on poor Lady Liberty!