Whats your take on it? or is the owner hoping for a goldmine of this coin? https://www.ebay.com/itm/KEY-DATE-1804-Draped-Bust-Large-Cent-Rough-but-Easily-Identified/124153125662?hash=item1ce81a5b1e:gnAAAOSw4mRelUOQ
Not sure I see anything obviously wrong with it, but I am also not sure that I would. The cuds look right, but there is a strange black patina.
Ridiculous asking price, surfaces corroded to hell and back! Not worth much at all, maybe a few dollars but not to me!
I tend to think it's probably genuine. But with no authentication (slab) and no return policy, I wouldn't touch it for a fraction of the price.
Seems to be a S-266-C (die state C, most common die state). I checked some markers, and in my opinion probably genuine, BUT never, ever worth that price. Here the reverse for comparison of the broken die feature. The other one is the example from my collection.
The reverse die is right. (There are only 6 large fraction reverses in the draped bust series and the rev used in 1804 is distinctive and not used in any other year.) As for complaints that it is over priced, an AG starts at $1500. I think the price is very reasonable. If I didn't already have one I'd buy it. Frankly it is still tempting because mine isn't that die stage. (Lots of early date collectors like to try and get all three die stages of this variety, which increases the demand on an already scarece date.)
After briefly searching and looking at some past Heritage Auctions, it looks like the differences in the die stages are based on the cuds. Is this correct? On S-266a, it appears as though there are not any cuds on either the obverse nor the reverse. For S-266b, it looks as though their is only the cud on the obverse but not on the reverse. Finally, it looks like there are cuds on both the obverse and reverse for S-266c. Are those the proper diagnostics for the three die states? Just curious.
