Ebay grandoldhalves is at it again. 1823 broken 3 Bust Half maybe not broken, just ugly.

mozin

I don't know what to make of this ebay seller grandoldhalves. He has been discussed on CU before, and I seem to recall some members were happy with their purchases from him.

The present coin is advertised as the very tough to find 1823 broken 3 Capped Bust Half. This variety is hardly ever available in AU, so an ANACS Unc details, net AU58 is truly something special. The coin shown in the ANACS holder appears it likely is the broken 3, hard to tell because the coin is tilted in the picture. The key for this variety is that the 3 must be leaning heavily to the right. Also, the midsection of the 3 is where the break occurs.

If you are interested in buying an 1823 ugly 3 O-110a, it too commands quite a premium. The other three ebay pictures shown along side the ANACS holdered coin most definitely do not show the ANACS coin. These three pictures show a much darker scruffy ugly 3, the one with the fat center. This 3 is somewhat similar to the patched three, but the patched 3 again must be leaning to the right.

Grandoldhalves had this same coin up for auction this past May, at which time all his pictures showed the scruffy ulgy 3 variety. I contacted the seller and told him he had the wrong pictures. Five months passed, so I guess he has not sold the coin. At least this time he got one of the four pictures right.

ebay listing

MikeKing

He has an interesting 1815/2 as well. Problem is, his return policy (at least on his personal web site) states you cannot return the coin if it's taken out of its holder (most of his coins are in cardboard holders). I ordered two coins from him in the past. I returned one of them immediately because of a mark I didn't see in the photo, the other one I kept, but it turned out to be artificially toned. He was a most gracious person with the return of the first coin. I didn't bother asking to return the other one because I had to take it out of its holder to have it graded. I don't know what to say about the broken 3.

Barndog

that is odd, two different coins pictured?

OKbustchaser

He has corrected the pictures now.

Barndog

$1400 for that coin, is that supposed to be the right price?

OKbustchaser

For an uncleaned slider (as this appears from the pics to be) the starting price would be a steal. Cleaned, I would call it ballpark.


Edited to add: I meant the pics appear to show a slider, not an uncleaned coin.

zap1111

I picked up a pretty nice 1831 O.113 in low AU from him in 2002 for a very good price (not listed as an R. 4 in the auction) and had a fine transaction. He seemed to be a very honorable businessman.