Received this goodie today. It's the fifth member of my slowly growing collection of Classic Head half cents. I'm trying to complete a XF/AU set. Got a way to go yet.
Nice coin , nice original color , I bought a real nice AU except it was dipped so I have it between some paper for the last year hoping it will retone , should have just spent some extra money to get a nice one like yours . rzage
Nice Kanga! I have a few half cents in my collection. One is mint state. Just happens to be a 33. Lovely copper!
Thank you all for the kudos. So far the ones I have are the less expensive dates/varieties. 1928/13 stars 1932 1933 1934 1935 I'll ignore the 1831 varieties and the 1936 since they're proof-only (same reason I ignore the 1895 Morgan). That makes the collection a lot more affordable. And for the 1811 varieties I'll probably have to drop back to Fine. For my collection I won't intentionally take coins in "DETAIL" grades. And I stick to business strikes.
Can't blame you there, I would ignore the proof only issues also. Looks like you have a great start. Love the look of early coppers.
Very Pretty! That is a very nice example. Love those half cents. I have always wondered why is it that half cents seem to attract less of a collector following than their large cent counterparts. At least that is my impression. The mintage figures are quite low, in the 100,000's (not millions), yet prices remain reasonable?
Part of it is that beginning American collectors start with Lincoln Cents and the go up from there. Jefferson nickels, Roosevelt dimes, etc. Then when they get the modern issues pretty much in shape they start to think, "What next?" And that generally turns out to be the next newest issues (IHC's, Buffalos, Merc's or Morgans). The newest half cent is 1857. That predates all this other stuff. Most people have to collect a LONG time to get back that far. And there's no modern connection or continuity to half cents like there is for cents (Lincolns lead to IHC's which lead to FE's which lead to large cents). Half dimes suffer from the same problem. One nice thing about half cents is that they weren't very popular, even back when they were issued. So they didn't circulate much and now the higher grades are easier to find than cents. I've got the full set of business strike Braided Hair half cents (1849-1857). Only 8 coins needed to complete the set. They are all AU or MS.
I think your impression is correct, and I would put forth two reasons: o Bigger is better when it comes to coins. o Most people aren't familiar with the denomination -- there are no half cents today.
