copper collectors -- how about this 1853 half cent?
tychojoe
Posts: 1,336 ✭✭✭
Hunting while on vacation in Kansas turned up this copper, the best I could find in terms of original surfaces. Comments on the grade appreciated. I don't know which AU to call it, 55 or 58 (but not 53 I think) (won't be slabbing it either).
When I bought it, I couldn't see anything negative about it. Later, grime (verdigris?) was seen around the L, T and Y in LIBERTY. Photograhy just showed 3 things I never noticed before either: rust-color in the lower right of both sides; a chipped rim at k-1 and k-2; and light spots at k-1 and k-3.
Those observations are more about how untrained my eye is, and how photography highlights normally hidden features, especially variations in surface colors. That color subtlety is something I'm noticing alot when shopping online for bust coinage.
None of those grading details bother me, though, because in hand this piece appears like the definition of milk chocolate in color, especially the reverse. Both sides are even in color, and unlike the pictures, look like actual Swiss milk chocolate in the shape of medallions! (a lighter, richer brown than in the photography). When I first saw this piece, I finally understood what "chocolate" means in descriptions of old copper.
But the pictures are off. Do those of you who see a lot of copper typically see a significant mismatch between the coin and its picture?
[edit update:
new pictures posted after the first two errant ones]
color corrected by "USAROK View" This is closer to the real thing -- I've gotta' find a program where I can color correct. "Paint" just doesn't cut it! (Thanks, Terry!
)
When I bought it, I couldn't see anything negative about it. Later, grime (verdigris?) was seen around the L, T and Y in LIBERTY. Photograhy just showed 3 things I never noticed before either: rust-color in the lower right of both sides; a chipped rim at k-1 and k-2; and light spots at k-1 and k-3.
Those observations are more about how untrained my eye is, and how photography highlights normally hidden features, especially variations in surface colors. That color subtlety is something I'm noticing alot when shopping online for bust coinage.
None of those grading details bother me, though, because in hand this piece appears like the definition of milk chocolate in color, especially the reverse. Both sides are even in color, and unlike the pictures, look like actual Swiss milk chocolate in the shape of medallions! (a lighter, richer brown than in the photography). When I first saw this piece, I finally understood what "chocolate" means in descriptions of old copper.
But the pictures are off. Do those of you who see a lot of copper typically see a significant mismatch between the coin and its picture?
[edit update:
new pictures posted after the first two errant ones]color corrected by "USAROK View" This is closer to the real thing -- I've gotta' find a program where I can color correct. "Paint" just doesn't cut it! (Thanks, Terry!
) 0
Comments
Just having fun.
Not a bad piece since it was circulated, and it is 154 yrs old.
``https://ebay.us/m/KxolR5
Hi TwoSides -- Anything in particular make you think it's been stripped of dirt? Do you mean dipped or soaked in oil or something? I haven't a clue -- maybe the small carbon-like spots are a remnant of something. Or maybe the fact that a little grime is around the obverse L, T and Y indicates that there once was more dirt?