1795 half dollar

I just received this one back from our host. I asked a few experts at the Anaheim ANA if they thought it would be details or straight grade - with very mixed opinions. So - what do you think?

Photo by our esteemed Mr. Messydesk

Photo by our esteemed Mr. Messydesk
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Comments
bob
Lance.
Tom
Genuine, plugged, repaired.
Have to agree, the marks at 12 o'clock obv and 6 o'clock reverse give it away; this is right where most coins are holed, and this one shows signs of tooling there, both sides. Decent job of it, but won't receive numerical grade.
Liberty: Parent of Science & Industry
Genuine, plugged, repaired.
Have to agree, the marks at 12 o'clock obv and 6 o'clock reverse give it away; this is right where most coins are holed, and this one shows signs of tooling there, both sides. Decent job of it, but won't receive numerical grade.
+1
VG Details
Unknowable as to damage from the image, perhaps not
Without the flaws its a 10 or 12 but I'm guessing they gave it a VG8.
If it was plugged, I would hope the folks you showed it to in person would be able to tell.
VG8
Without the flaws its a 10 or 12 but I'm guessing they gave it a VG8.
If it was plugged, I would hope the folks you showed it to in person would be able to tell.
Exactly my thinking. If anyone was hung up on whether it would straight-grade it was probably over surface issues and not a repaired hole.
Lance.
At any rate the "V" that is scratched in over the "R" in "LIBERTY" would make it a details grade coin in any case. The sharpness grade is VG-7.
Repaired-VG Details
PCGS Genuine
Repaired-VG Details
Latin American Collection
There is a good chance that it has been plugged. The marks on corresponding areas of the obverse and reverse look suspect. The area under the wreath on the reverse looks like the kind of marks that are used to conceal a filled hole to me.
At any rate the "V" that is scratched in over the "R" in "LIBERTY" would make it a details grade coin in any case. The sharpness grade is VG-7.
+1
my early American coins & currency: -- http://yankeedoodlecoins.com/
Genuine, plugged, repaired.
bob
This.
I have examined this very closely - if it is plugged, then it is absolutely the best repair job I have seen. The scratches between E and R do not line up with the mark under the wreath. I thought it might be an attempted hole, but there is a similar mark between C and A. I thought the scratches would make it a details coin, but about half the people I talked to thought it would grade in spite of them, since they were old and not horribly intrusive to the design.
I am certainly pleased with VG08 - Lance and REALGATOR were spot on. Even with this coin added to the census, I believe it is still a low R-7. It is the only one without any trace of the reverse die crack (compared the other 8 in the Tomkins book), so perhaps mine is the *true* Overton 123 and everyone else can be 123a now
Pacific Northwest Numismatic Association
That said, I'd still love to see extremely large and detailed pictures of the surfaces and particularly the areas in question
Liberty: Parent of Science & Industry
Hey, congratulations on the grade and the rare variety, I'm very happy to have been wrong about this coin.
That said, I'd still love to see extremely large and detailed pictures of the surfaces and particularly the areas in question
Thanks - your analysis was very similar to mine - I have been burned by plugged coins in the past.
I uploaded John's full-size photos to flickr if you want to examine it more closely
obverse on flickr
reverse on flickr
Edited to fix quote code
Pacific Northwest Numismatic Association
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VG 1795 halves tend to have a lot of "problems." My last one was a VG10 OGH and really was a Fine 12. I sold it for Fine money to a major dealer. I made a list of all the flaws and defects on the coins and came up with over 50 of them. No collector would touch it with that description....lol. So I was forced to sell it to a dealer for 5-10% more money...lol. I count about 35-40 "defects" on this one. Welcome to the club.