This funny-looking half dime...

So I got this funny-looking half dime in the chang at Kroger's yesterday (not really), what do you guys think? Couldn't quite catch it, but on the almost smooth reverse, in certain light, one can make out the slightest remnant of some sort of heraldic eagle thing.

 

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Well, that's what IS on the reverse, a heraldic eagle. Are you aware that 1802 is the rarest date of Half Dime by far? If genuine, Redbook $12-15K in About Good, although yours won't grade anywhere near that high.

Also trust you measured and that it's a half dime, not a dime? We can't tell, or at least I can't, for sure. I admit, the date looks funny, but I have nothing to compare it with.

 

It's a half dime.

 

Big bucks if genuine, even in that deplorable condition. In that era, you have to guard against contemporary counterfeits. I'm no expert on these.

 

Side by side with a cleaned and plugged 1803, sorry my photography sucks:

 

I would send the coin in to NGC or PCGS. They will give you the answer. It has a lot of damage but they will know.

 

First, welcome to the neighborhood!

There are those collectors of P01's who would probably die to have this in their collection.

Chris

 

It looks like an 1802 Half Dime. If it is, they only minted just over 3,000 so it's the key. Christmas is only 104 days away.

 

PS...It not funny looking, just extremely worn but it's worth some bucks, as is.

 

I'm the furthest thing from an expert on these, but that 2 looks like an afterthought to me, and the images of genuine coins Google is showing me never have that chip inside the 0.

 

Certainly the stars on the 1802 and adjacent 1803 are radically different, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything on a subsequent-year comparison.

 

Wonderful change find!

just saw the "not really"


Well, nice piece anyway

 

Wow how lucky can someone get !

 

The probable reason the reverse is worse than obv. is likely it was in one of those old slide out cabinents. The rev. side of the coin was subjected to friction every time the drawer was slid open.

 

That would take one HECK of a lot of sliding.

 

Yeah, you are right. It is pretty far gone back there. Ha, ha! I have seen plenty of 1793, 94, and 95 U.S. cents with similar duo grades that were in such cabinets years earlier.

 

I'm not buying that.

 

You could be right. I am just making one observation. I don't know what else could have caused that. If you have an explanation, I would be interested in it.

 

How did you acquire the coin?

 

I'm sorry to be mysterious. I'm just interested in people's reaction to this coin which, when I posted it, I knew was a rarity. The coin is such a mess. How could it really be graded? Grade is the bottom, okay, but it's still what it is... how do you value it?

The coin was purchased from a San Francisco dealer in the early 1990s and I believe that it is real. The dealer is still working. I have come to the coin through a family connection.

I have read that there is a "fourteen worst 1802 half dimes" essay in the main half dime reference book. Unfortunately a copy of that out-of-print book costs $250, an amount I'm unwilling to spill considering that it may not help me at all.