Is there anything wrong with this coin? Any ideas what could have caused the toning on the reverse of this capped bust half? Although the capped half dollars are somehow ugly I like this particular coin Thanks, Michael
Is it a problem coin ? Yes, it is. The coin has quite a few scratches on it. As for the toning pattern, my guess is something laid across that area of the coin, or vice versa, for quite a few years helping to prevent that area from toning as much as the rest of the coin.
agreed (wow!) and the 'toning' could have been from foreign material in the metal when the planchet was created.
So are you serious when you say "yes, it's a problem coin" or are you being ironic here? I am really wondering if a TPG would mark it as "Details sth." coin. But thanks for your thoughts so far, really appreciated.
Could be, but that would not explain the lighter area directly above it. Unless of course the rubber band was holding something wrapped around the coin in just that specific area.
Someone could have been trying to take the mark off and stopped when they couldn't... Hard to say for sure...
Doug was replying to your question: "Is there anything wrong with this coin?" So, he was serious. The sarcasm is usually mine.
So it looks like I made a bad deal with that coin.... should I just sell it or rather send it to a TPG? But probably it will only return as an XF with details, right?
If that coin was submitted to a TPG I would be very, very, surprised if it was not returned in a Genuine or a Details slab because of all the scratches.
Keep in mind that this is YOUR collection. If you like the coin, keep it. If you cant stand the fact of 'knowing' that its been cleaned, then sell it. In my mind you should keep it, you didnt even really know that it was scratched/cleaned before you were told, so obviously you appreciated the coin up until that point. Dont let us tell you what to do with your collection. Also, Doug didnt give you the full run down either, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth and Doug was a wee Young Numismatist, it was actually more common for folks to clean coins, apparently thats just what you did in the back of your cave by torch-light. Use your loin cloth to remove any (and all) old tarnishing and dirty spots. All jokes aside though, it really was common practice for folks to clean their coins in the first half of last century (or so ive been told, too young for experience there), so it really comes down to if you enjoy the coin or not. Another thing too is the degree of the problems on this coin. They appear to be minor and not detract from the overall appearance too much for a 175+ year old coin. Just my opinion, though. I also have a few cleaned coins in my collection, so i personally dont mind them all that much
Who says they're ugly?! I agree your coin has problems, but that doesn't mean it's "ugly". Every Bustie is pretty in its own, special way.
My grandpa showed me once how to clean coins... fortunately I was too small to remember and never ever even thought about doing it myself. Just trying to understand what happened to that coin... thanks for encouraging me to keep it.
I'd grade it an easy AU/cleaned. As always it's impossible to be very effective judging the surfaces by pics. My guess is it's been dipped to remove some heavy duty crud that should have been left alone. It's impossible to definitively identify the cause of the dark band on the reverse. The oily look near the reverse rim is often the type of toning seen after a dip in common silver cleaner. The scratches don't look too bad to me. I don't think they would detract from the overall grade. I like the coin. I know I'm new here and don't mean to come off as Captain Know-it-all. My opinion only.
I believe this is an O-112. Note the parallel die lines below star 13. As only the kids on "The Brady Bunch" and a few burned out hippies used to say, groovy! If I'm off on the attribution please feel free to corect me.
Doug covered everything that you need to know+ others too!!! All I can add money wise is send to Anacs there your best try for a graded + details. *they have a sale All USA 10* coins for $10.00ea sometime theirs also a Free S/H Look for ads in coin news. Ngc + Pcgs will charger $50.00, 1* coin hex get 10? Ask for the Grey holder!Keep your fingers crossed:thumb: "not a ad for Anacs"