Thinking about pulling the trigger on this Barber half for $79 so I thought I'd see if there are any opinions from here first. Looking at GC archives the TPG difference between VG10 and F12 seems to be a crapshoot. NGC says $75 for both VG and F (they don't break out the number grades), PCGS says $110-$185 (seems high), Numismedia says VG8 $28 F12 $91 but doesn't show VG10. I don't see any glaring issues but maybe you folks see something. Thanks. FYI I'm looking for a reasonably priced example of a certain variety and this one has it.
Nice VG10. I'd grab it at $79. You're not going to make any killing on it talking him down a couple bucks.
If it's worth it to you, it's worth it. It's not going to be worth a lot less than that in today's market.
I'd say $79 is a fair price for a nice original VG10 like that. Not a screaming bargain but not ridiculously high, either. Just about right.
True, but it’s always nice to get feedback from fellow collectors first. That has spared me a few mistakes in the past (one or two of which would have been expensive). Some extra sets of eyes never hurts!
I'm typically in the "ready, fire, aim" brigade and buy coins I like before I really think about it. Sometimes it works out in my favor like the 1923 Peace dollar I bought for around $30. It looked a little grungy but I saw after getting home that it was a doubled tiara vam variety. Lots of other times, though, I end up buying a cleaned coin lol!
I don't like the scratches on the eagle. Based on my experience, I have a feeling they're going to be a lot more obvious and distracting in person than in the pictures. I would personally consider this a details coin.
Hence my post. Of course I'll make my own decision but it's nice to see if someone else sees something. I'm not so concerned about value or profit. @Mr. Numismatist I also noted the reverse scratches that may be worse in person, and Liberty is pretty chewed up if you look closely (cheek, chin, eyebrow, behind ear). I wrote a lengthy article on the 1900-O 50c in the spring BCCS journal and I like to have an example of my discoveries. A second reverse hub type was discovered a couple years ago for 1901 and later, and a Type II obverse was already known for 1901 on. What I discovered was that 1900-O had an early release of both obverse and reverse types, all four combinations exist, Obv II/Rev II is hard to find. I guess I'm tired of waiting for a better example, but I'll snoop around some more. Thanks for all the replies.
If it’s a special variety coin as you mention, then all the more reason to grab it, I suppose. I know nothing of the varieties there, but liked it enough on a basic level (eye appeal, originality, technical grade detail).
Seems very close to an F-12. There is a rim ding at 9 o'clock and some scratching on the eagle's head. In F-12 USA coin book says 133 and at G-08 60.
@Michael K borderline F12 was my assessment too, not sure about Scratched or Rim Damage. I went back through my usual places and decided to pull the trigger. 30 day returns so why not. DL has three for sale, $10500-$35625, yikes - gems, ex-Hansen stuff, didn't bother to check varieties. HA has only sold 2 1900-O in the last year. GC has sold 4, one in August was the variety I'm after but I think I got outbid, don't recall exactly. F15 CAC that went for $192 with BP. I should have bid stronger but I probably wasn't willing to pay the CAC premium (or something). L&C has a few raw overgraded overpriced available, but I'm not paying twice as much for a similar example. I'll update when coin is received. Thanks for all the help.
PM me if you'd like a copy of my article, anyone else as well. (Or join BCCS!) I think it's an interesting story. I tracked the transition anomaly down to a Dec 8 1900 shipment of 4 year-1900 die pairs after they had already been shipped 1901 dies. New Orleans was instructed to produce 700,000-800,000 half dollars during December and they were desperate for more 1900 dies. Philadelphia was forced to use the reengraved masters that were intended to begin in 1901.
USPS tracking is so wonky. It showed "arrived at distribution center" two days ago and nothing since then. Been watching it like a hawk. Suddenly it skipped to "out for delivery" a few minutes ago. Now let's see if they can put it in the right mailbox.
I know what you mean. Two days ago my tracking number said delivery attempted and a notice was left. No notice on my door and 3 letters in my box. Yesterday I went and picked it up. When I arrived home my wife asked me what the delivery notice dated for the day before was for and I’m holding the package.
Yeah, mine showed arrived at post office and then out for delivery only 11 minutes apart. There's no evidence that it ever left the distribution center. The whole system falls apart when they don't scan the dang packages. The best one was when I had a $300 coin shipped to my PO box and it showed delivered. I raced down to the post office and my box was empty, no delivery slip, nothing. The guy is looking all over for it, on the floor, etc. Finally I said check the adjoining boxes. Sure enough, he put it in the wrong box. If that person had picked up their mail before me, they could have kept it and USPS would say it was delivered. The whole system also falls apart when they can't deliver it to the correct address. Anyway, it got delivered. I'll take better pictures later. I'm satisfied. In hand it's not horribly scratched or damaged, couple slight rim bumps. The variety markers are all clear and that's what I was after.
My best effort pretty much matches the seller images. I'll further bore everyone with minutia, because this is what I enjoy about the hobby. In 1901, the obverse and reverse changed. During 1901 both types were used at all three mints. The first reverse type continued to appear sporadically in SF and NO through 1905, but the first obverse type is not found after 1901 (so far). It was previously not known that the second types were also used in 1900 New Orleans. Here's how to identify. 1892-1900 types on left, 1901-1915 on right. I tracked the source of the 1900-O anomaly to this die shipment: I then identified those four reverse dies by mint mark position, all of which were the new reverse type. These dies were labeled II-A, -B, -C and -D. It turned out that only two of the four obverse dies were Obverse II. These were identified by date position. The other two in that shipment, Obverse I dies, are impossible to distinguish from the other 1900 obverse dies shipped previously. These dies were labeled II-1 and II-2. (The image below is on the wrong order - II-2 is the top one) All four combinations exist for 1900-O, and a census of 221 coin images shows the relative scarcity. My new coin is the II/II, around 6% of the 1900-O examples. I also identified five Obverse I dies that used the Reverse II anomaly by date position, labeled I-1 through I-5. I was surprised by how many anomaly combinations there were. An obverse die was paired with as many as three different Rev II dies, and a Rev II die was paired with as many as five obverse dies. This all leads me to ID my new coin as die pair II-2 / II-C. Fun with coins!
