bust half people....question fer ya

Comments

• Baley Posts: 22,663 ✭✭✭✭✭

  December 4, 2005 2:04AM

  Sure, I'll field this one.. Back in the day when these coins were new and sometimes unfamiliar, they circulated in the young US alongside the more common Spanish colonial silver coins as well as assorted silver coins from around the world. There were also a significant number of counterfeit or plated base-metal coins that unscrupulous people would try to pass. Often a shopkeeper or other merchant would put a "test mark" on a coin before accepting it: by scratching the surface of the coin, one could determine if it was plated or made of solid silver. Real silver makes a very unique luster when the surface is freshly exposed, which an experienced eye can recognize. Many of these "test marks" take the form of a relatively small scratch or a dig in the field. This 1802 half has such marks in front of the face, as well as below the olive branch on the reverse.
  
  
  
  Other coins (of all denominations) can have more severe marks such as a big X or obtrusive back-and-forth pinscratches.
  Here's an 1801 half with probably VF detail, but netted quite a bit down due to such scratches
  
  
  
  fortunately enough, the marks on both of these coins mostly avoid the main devices. There are many coins of the 1794-1836 era, however with big X either across Lady Liberty's profile, or one in the field in front or behind her head.

  Liberty: Parent of Science & Industry

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• mozin Posts: 8,755 ✭✭✭

  December 4, 2005 2:54AM

  Baley is right.
  
  The only such coin I own is an 1810 Capped Bust Half in XF. Someone scratched it in the left obverse field, looks like "HI'. I doubt this was done to show the coin was indeed silver, but then, I wasn't there when it was scratched.
  
  Counterfeit Capped Bust Half Dollars are very collectible, especially since CONTEMPORARY COUNTERFEIT CAPPED BUST HALF DOLLARS was written by Keith Davignon back in 1996. Often times grades on counterfeits are not very important, and they are usually ugly looking compared to the real Capped Bust Halves.

  I collect Capped Bust series by variety in PCGS AU/MS grades.

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• Lahcoin Posts: 170

  December 4, 2005 10:41AM

  thanks for the replies.
  
  Most of the time it's the coin itself thats beautiful to me, but now the history of its alteration is becoming interesting to me like the chop dollar, hobo nickel or love token.
  
  Maybe like LordMarcovan and his holeys, I should start a X collection.

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