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Half cent question
sellsatan
Posts: 663
Okay, I'm starting to get serious about putting a quality coin or two in my 7070. I figured I'd start at the beginning with the half cents. My question is this: What kind of surfaces should I look for or avoid when seeking out my examples? I am familiar with the natural look of unfooledaroundwith silver coins, but my knowledge of copper leaves a bit to be desired. I'm going to end up with circulated grade coins as I'm not a millionaire, so that's where my problem lies. How do I tell if a coin is original? What are the tell tale signs of cleaning and recoloring? Thanks folks.
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Choice circulated early copper has light tan surfaces with no porosity, but watch out. Coins can be worked on to smooth the surfaces, and there are disagreements between copper specialists and the leading grading services over what is original and what is not.
Mint State pieces are graded not only for their absence of rub and the number of marks, but also color. The ideal, of course, is red, but for early copper you might need to take out a second mortgage on your house to buy one. There are some red-brown and brown coins available, usually from the one the hoard varieties.
Among the hoard varieties, there are a far number of 1804 C-13 (plain 4, stemless) coins around. Most of the Mint State examples of those are brown Uncs. The most common early large cent that comes in red-brown (but rarely full red) is the 1806 C-4 (large 6, stems). These coins are known as Chapman Hoard Uncs, because the two Chapman bothers, who were Philadelphia coin dealers, marketed a hoard of several hundred pieces in the early 1900s. These coins are generally attractive, although a fair number of these pieces display varying degrees of weakness in their strike.
Here’s an example from my collection. NGC graded it MS-62, Brown.