Hi All, Can anyone explain this recent sale of a Half Cent for $4k at the recent Long Beach 2013 auction? Is there something unique about this coin that caused the bidding war? Looking forward to your thoughts thanks http://coins.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=1186&lotNo=7020#Photo
There is only one Variety for this year, but this might explain the bidding. It is a Late Die State and also has evidence of a possible understrike from a cut down Cent in an arc below T(E) to (O)F. It is not as strong as the one below, but possibly a confirmation piece which would indicate these were struck in 1802. It is a numismatically interesting piece. http://coins.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=428&lotNo=38
I don't see any evidence of it being struck on spoiled cent stock, but that is the only thing I could think of that would account for the runaway bidding. In Breen's book on the half cents he said there were only four pieces known struck on cut down cents and they are all early die states. This is a late die state.
