looking to buy this bust half, opinions needed

Yep, AU, beautiful coin with great tone. Good Buy... :thumb:

Take Care
Ben

 

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Very nice.

 

nice one, I was going to call it au-55 before I saw the bottom of the posted pics. Nice coin with some good tone on it. thanks for showing us.

 

Thanks guys...

 

I like the coin even more after seeing your photo. Congrats!

 

Thanks Mike...

 

Very nice pickup DJ.

 

Nice piece, and looks original!
Good pick up.

 

Very nice DJ, congrats!

Phoenix

 

OK help me out here Ben.

My understanding is the obverse master die contained the bust and nothing else. Any variations come from all the other motifs (stars, numerals, etc).

I also understand they made a new master die in 1832, so we expect all coins before that to differ from all coins after that.

Why, then, does O-116 have a distinctive curl to the lips ? I would have guessed all features of the bust itself would be identical all year long, 'twixt varieties, and even 'twixt all years from the same master die.

Apparently they did some massaging of bust details on the individual working dies, yes ? So some differ from the master die.

 

^^^ I'm sorry but I haven't a clue on this one. My book "Bust Half Fever" is out in the office and we're having rain and sleet so I'm afraid i'll have to pass on the question for now.

I do stand corrected. It's now being reported as an R-2. Here is a thread on another forum which discusses the 1830, O-116.
http://coinzip.proboards79.com/v45index.cgi?board=1830b&action=display&thread=1834

Ben

 

Beautiful Coin - I love the toning and eye appeal! Really a great looking coin! Congrats!

Darryl

 

Really nice coin!

 

Thank you.

 

Thanks, bro !

I guess my puzzlement is about the process in general, not this variety in particular.

I would think anything on the master die would be identical for all working dies made from that master. How, then, do details of the bust vary ?

One explanation is the master wears just like working dies do, and produces variance in working dies.

Another is that people might make changes to the master for whatever reason - artistic preference, maintenance, mischief ...

But both those explanations would produce a long series of die varieties with identical bust characteristics, just like a brand new master. Overton proves that's not the case with these 1834's.

So it has to be something about the individual working die. Maybe there was a burr or something, and they filed on it. Dunno.

 

Very nice coin, and good job grading it Ben.