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What would you grade this half cent
sadysta1
Posts: 1,307 ✭✭✭
Looks like it was cleaned long time ago and retoning nicely. I have tough time grading copper in general. What do you think?
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www.brunkauctions.com
Is it slightly off center, or is that my imagination.
It's like an EAC convention in here.
If you want the retoning to continue, take it out of that holder and put it in a brown Kraft envelope
and keep it somewhere warm for a long time.
You guys are tough!
It's like an EAC convention in here.
Not tough at all ... The level of detail on that piece is consistent with standards for Fine, and it's been that way since I was a YN in the 1960s. There are rim issues which traditionally lower the grade by one notch. The reddish color on the reverse is indicative of cleaning, but as Walkerguy21D said the coin will probably tone down after a few years of storage in an envelope.
Overall it's not bad coin given what little is available in the modern market when it comes to copper. Time was you could find coins like this at the small shows. Now it's almost impossible.
The variety is "Plain 4, Stemless" which is 1804, C-13 in Roger Cohen's book. This is the most common of all half cent varieties from my observations.
Drapery lines are too complete and sharp for Fine details. Same with some of the hair and leaf details. I'd say VF20-25 details. Are those reddish tints on the reverse remains of original color or from chemicals? Rim bangs are the biggest distraction.
It's like my 1804 large cent (although its fully retoned) - and I'm still happy with it!
It's like my 1804 large cent (although its fully retoned) - and I'm still happy with it!
... but there is a big difference between the 1804 half cent, which is quite common, and the 1804 large cent which is scarce or rare.
PCGS photograde
Drapery lines are too complete and sharp for Fine details. Same with some of the hair and leaf details. I'd say VF20-25 details. Are those reddish tints on the reverse remains of original color or from chemicals? Rim bangs are the biggest distraction.
Breen states the C-13 no crosslet 1804 often seen with "weird
mottled surfaces".
The obv appears F-15, but the rev. looks better, in the VF range.
The obv 5 was used to strike the entire production of C-11 plain 4 stems, before & after the C-13 which probably accounts for the difference.
In any case it should be removed from the flip.
R.I.P. Bear
A big difference indeed, not the least of which is the 50-100x price differential!
The 1799 large cent is a major rarity. That may have due to the production of 1798 dated large cents in 1799, but also probably had something to do with the policy which had the mint making a record number of silver dollars. In fact the 1799 silver dollar was the only silver coin the mint produced that year. The rollers were always a problem at the first U.S. mint, and production was probably aimed at silver dollar and $10 gold eagle production at the expense of everything else.
I would agree on the capacity issues, along with the continual shortage of planchets, and machinery problems in those early
years, that made it difficult to strike large quantities of both half cents and large cents in the same calendar year.
The 1806 is definitely a tougher date in middle and higher grades. The cent screw press broke in April of that year, and wasn't
restored until the following year, and it's assumed many of coins struck early in the year were dated 1805, used until they gave out.
Perhaps this created more demand for half cents, so many of those were struck instead.