Here's an 1853 Liberty Seated Half Dime with arrows. The reverse is about 10 degrees off center as indicated in the photos. There is a small spot of damage to Liberty at breast height. The reverse has a bit more wear than the obverse. And then there's the date. Please tell me what is up with this Half Dime.
Rotated die strike, with post mint damage. The date looks like it took a hit or two from something. The reverse is showing more wear than obverse, which is not uncommon for Seated coinage. One hundred sixty seven year old coins often show signs of taking a beating.
This would be an interesting piece to do an XRF test on. I suspect possibly a contemporary counterfeit.
Interesting suggestion @Conder101 The details look mushy and the head and date are "off", so a cast contemporary counterfeit may be a possibility. Can you get an accurate weight and diameter? As Conder said, an XRF would be a quick and easy check if you know somebody who has one
They are not that expensive in the circulated grades. You just have to find the dealer who has some to sell. OOPS! I was thinking this was a dime. I don't have an 1853 half dime. My type coin is an 1854. Here it is.
I can't find any reference to anything like this in Valentine, Blythe, or Flynn. Also, nothing like it in Steve Crain's image collection; https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/imagecollection/514182 It would be nice to have a much clearer and closer shot of the date numerals but here's a couple of thoughts: - The 8 does not look like a blundered punchmark, more like PMD. - The 8 looks to be much lower than the 1, 5 and 3. Odd. - The 5 looks quite strange, not like any 5 I have seen on a 1853 w/Arrows or really like any other LS half-dime I've seen. The 1853 w/arrows is one of the most common of all LS half dimes and there are like 78 obverses and 80 reverses and a bunch of mules. I guess it could be a contemporary counterfeit so I would do a dimensional and weight check. But if I had to guess without any further information, I'd say this is PMD caused by someone trying to do something but what I cannot fathom.
I agree. If you are looking just for a coin from the 1800s you can get Indian Head Cents in decent conditions for under $5. Seated coinage itself is fairly inexpensive for common dates. Be careful though, once you start down the road of obsolete coinage like seated liberty coins, you will find it to be very addicting.
