OK, sure, this one won't win any beauty contests, but it only cost me thirty bucks. It's well worn, and has a few minor rim bumps consistent with this low grade level, but not much major porosity, corrosion, or pitting to speak of. The surfaces seem pretty smooth and nearly all of the legends are readable. Something like this must surely be one of the cheapest US coins from the 1700s you could hope to buy, I think. I'm guessing this is the Style 2 hairstyle? No clue on the Sheldon variety.
Next up: the seriously spooky 1800 half cent I bought at the same time, for twelve bucks. Stay tuned! Edit- here ‘tis. Brace yourselves!
Oh. I guess you have one of the 15 known to exist ? I actually had one for a day. It was a copy from Vietnam and sounded "scratchy" on my Metal Detector . Obviously a mixed metal I believe .
That's a beautiful looking coin. Good honest wear. And for $30! I would've jumped on that. You did well I'd love to have a pre-1800's US coin but the prices get rapidly out of my budget. I will have to stick to my nearly slick 1800.
I used to by stuff like that 30 years ago, when they were about $5 apiece. Then I'd pull out my copy of Sheldon's Penny Whimsy and practice attributing them. Found a couple R3-R4 but nothing great. The early copper bug never fully bit, so I gave up on them. I sold some but probably have about a dozen in a 2x2 box somewhere.
Even twenty years ago- maybe even 15- they were still cheap. Not five bucks for the early stuff, but cheap. When I collected holed large cents by date (not variety), I had everything but 1793, 1795, 1799, and 1804, and can’t recall spending significant money on any of them. You could still get the later Coronets and Braided Hairs (holed) for five bucks. Looking at the Red Book and Numismedia prices today for this coin- even in AG and G- I was surprised. (I know, this one is more like FR02- but I don’t think it’s far short of AG03.)
I'm slowly working on a low grade large cent set and I would have been all over that! Yikes, I can remember getting low grade type coin draped bust cents for $3.95 as a kid. I used to get coins from "The coin wholesaler" out of Chattanooga. They then shifted to mostly silver rounds and I drifted away.
Lots of meat left and rim bumps are anathema to me, but on this coin they are so old and mostly toned over they're not a big deal. Well done @lordmarcovan !
