I think the image's color is a bit off from the actual coin. I'm still experimenting with lighting. The actual coin has more "agreement" obverse vis a vis reverse.
I think because of what looks like a scratch. For me I would want to see the coin in hand. The pictures do not make it look distracting and I have certainly seen worse graded.
I personally was torn between 45 and 50... I gave it the benefit of the doubt with AU details I still think the scratch dooms it to not holder... They are a little more lenient on the early stuff but I think this one gets details graded.
The scratch that runs down across the face, the other scratch on her neck, and the two scratches thru her hair.
Good news, Mike ! The coin is raw. You win ! Still retains some mint luster underneath the patina. Light high point wear, moderate strike, Middle Die State (Manley 2.0). The toning / patina is a bit darker than the reverse image, and about the same as the obverse image.
Yes... worse are certainly graded all the time. Here's what I like about this thread... it illustrates what a difficult time TPGs have with early copper. There are plenty of sharp cookies on this site. Several have posted up here. And they disagree. And that's totally cool. As expected, we have fairly close agreement on "details / sharpness". That's typical. We're seeing XF45 - AU53... pretty tight grouping. AU50 +/- one tier. Also as expected, there is significant variance and disagreement on the impact and severity of imperfections. One might say "that's 'cuz no one can tell for sure from a picture". True, that's a factor - but that's not the reason for disagreement. The main reason is an imperfection affects people differently. Some people penalize more harshly, others less. No one is "wrong". It's truly personal preference - truly subjective. I honestly value everyone's input. Almost all early American copper has problems of some sort. For that reason, TPGs cannot be as picky as they are with 20th century coinage - or early gold or even silver for that matter. My personal (biased) opinion is this coin has a 60% or better chance to full grade. I'm with Mark - the scratches are not distracting in hand and there are worse coppers in slabs. The scratch is dull, old, and repatinated which works in it's favor. I'm setting up at table #311 at the 50th annivesary TNA show in Ft. Worth this weekend. If it doesn't sell, I'll send it in to a TPG and post up the results.
Once again, I'm late for the party-- It looks AU to me, whether or not the obv. marks would net it to XF is really up to the Grading Gods that Be... I think it is a lovely, original coin which is quite an accomplishment for a 200+ year old disc of copper.
I concur it does have some mint luster, and the coloring as you have posted the item in photo seems a bit off. It is a very nice specimen Good luck at your table this weekend!
I'm agreeing with the consensus - it's an about-50 net about-40. Hard to be any more precise than that on my phone. Nice-looking coin, though I have always had a dislike for the various stemless half cents of 1804-1806. If you look you could probably find a nice-looking '04 C-6 with reverse cud, always a neat addition to any collection. Fish
I just got the grades back. PCGS called it XF45. I'll put it in classified when I get the coin back and photographed.