Do you see what I see? I was outgunned in the final second. http://www.ebay.com/itm/1805-Draped-Bust-/310684951047?pt=Coins_US_Individual&hash=item4856442207
I'll take a crack at it. I notice the 5 appears to be wider at its bottom than most varieties of this year. Not knowing this series well, and with NO references (bust halves are NOT in the CPG and I'm not an NGC member so their varieties page is inaccessible to me) I think that the "fat 5" variety is probably scarcer than most others because all the varieties I see for sale right now, no matter the rarity rating, have a "slender 5" How'd I do?
Pay particular attention to the Y in LIBERTY on the obverse and the eagle's head on the reverse. Pi-man is knocking on the door with the obvious question.
Not much of a description, and the coin is listed in the category "U.S. Dimes, Draped Bust". It would have been nice to have a little more info.
This, friends, is the supremely rare 1805 half dime. It appears to be a problem coin with VF details, but even with the issues, market value is probably $1200-$1500 IMO.
...and it appears among an odd handful of coins from a seller whose previous listings are almost all musical equipment. This sets the "uneducated seller" flag, while not triggering the "new to eBay and maybe a fraud" flag. Could be that the seller accepted these in trade. It's a very odd assortment, though, and this coin was apparently much more valuable than the others put together. Unless, of course, there's unrecognized value in the others as well. Good pick, I hope. If it turns out to be fake, eBay's got your back.
I don't know, the coin sold for what a problem free G4 would go for. This was not a coin that was a not so obvious variety that could be cherry picked for a good price. It was just a straight up 1805. So all the bidder knew exactly what they were bidding on. It just seems to me the coin settled at a fair auction price.
1805 doesn't appear to be any rarer than the other Draped bust heraldic half dimes (except for 1802 which is WAY rarer.)
