1814 Capped Bust Half Difficult to Grade - Unevenly Struck Obverse and Reverse.

Eddi

This 1814 Bust Half shows a reasonably well struck obverse, I would say in the F to VF range, but a very weak reverse.

How can this be explained ? and how would it be graded? Looking forward to your comments.

Thanks,

Eduard

drddm

Your 1814 happens to be a O-108 which is the E/A Redbook variety.

Although it’s considered to be an R1 it’s much tougher in the AU to MS grades.

This particular die marriage almost always comes weakly struck on the reverse, especially the eagles head and left wing. Yours looks to be VF20-25 in my opinion.

Dave

Manifest_Destiny

Agree, VF details. Looks cleaned and retoned though.

lkeigwin

Very cool variety! Nice find.

I agree with Dave on grade and the commonly weak reverse.

I would not condemn it as a "details" coin without seeing it in hand. I'd like to have it for my album, actually.
Lance.

MFeld

My guess would be straight grade VF20. I don't see enough evidence of unacceptable cleaning for a details grade.

Pnies20

I think it would grade! Looks solid to me.

VF20

Edit: I realized I have a raw one that looks exactly the same. I’ll post a pic later.

jayPem

Earlier die state.
Hard to tell but if it has nice original skin, I could see it as a 30... assuming the graders are aware that 108's have a notoriously weak eagle head.

CaptHenway

This is one of the reasons why I invented split grading back when ANACS started grading in 1979. A coin like this might have been called VF-25/F-15. Nowadays with the knowledge that this die variety normally comes weak on the head and wing I could live with a straight VF-20.

THe old cleaning does not bother me too much.

jacrispies

Technical grade, ignoring the weak strike, is XF-40. Very lovely protected surfaces show this coin has most of the meat on the bone with some original sparkle in places like the hair in the brow and around the olive leaves.

Whether the TPGs see that is a problem, as differentiating strike weakness vs wear is not a skill many people seem to obtain. They may call it VF-30. Or they may color bump it to AU-50

Pnies20

@jacrispies said:
Technical grade, ignoring the weak strike, is XF-40. Very lovely protected surfaces show this coin has most of the meat on the bone with some original sparkle in places like the hair in the brow and around the olive leaves.

Whether the TPGs see that is a problem, as differentiating strike weakness vs wear is not a skill many people seem to obtain. They may call it VF-30. Or they may color bump it to AU-50

I love your enthusiasm.