Don't you just love it when...

Myqqy

you're looking at an ebay listing for a bust half, and they say that the coin "might have been cleaned in the past", and the thing is glowing bright white, or has countless lines crisscrossing its face. Not only are the cleanings heartbreaking, but also the number of beautiful bust halves with incredible detail that have solder marks or deep scratches or engravings, etc... I guess it makes me even appreciate more the ones with beautiful dark natural toning. Speaking of bust halves- is anybody familier with errors on the edge lettering? Does that bring any sort of significant premium?

Baley

You should title a thread like this "cleaned bust halves" or "Bust half edge lettering errors" or something, to get more views on subject from interested parties.

You're right, it's a shame when early coins are cleaned or damaged.

Errors in edge lettering on capped bust halves are not rare, and generally carry little if any premium if the error is minor, such as "FIFTY CENTS OHRALF A DOLLAR *" or the like.

If the edge lettering error is more spectacular, such as entire words doubled or missing, then the premium might be a little greater, if you can find a buyer that is interested and willing to pay a premium; of course, you can't even see the edge if the coin is slabbed, so the "third side" is often neglected.

Conder101

Words missing is not that unusual, doubled words are. Even better are ones where one of the edge dies was installed upside down or where the coin was run through the Castaining machine twice, twice but flipped over between passes, or even tripled.

RotatedRainbows

I have an 1810 Bust Half with completely doubled edge lettering and paid no premium at all for it but it was about 15 years ago.