I am so pumped! I just bought an 1804 Half Cent. It's my first half cent, my first draped bust design, and now my oldest coin. It's so cool to think this coin is 206 years old and was minted when Thomas Jefferson was president.
yes slabbed ... PCGS VF35 i tend to make mistakes when i buy raw (just dont have the expertise) ... plus it saves me the cost, aggrevation, and stress of sending it to PCGS myself
Great coin. I always loved these half cents and their large cent counterparts. To me, they are the prettiest cent design in our history.
To fully appreciate it, you must now do the research into the series and variety along with determination of die states AND check the edge. It is the initial step towards becoming a true copperhead. Next, Membership in Early American Coppers, Inc.!
I am certainly a novice about all that!!! Some of that info is on the PCGS holder ... right? By the way, what's on the edge ? The coin is being shipped to me right now and i havent seen the edge yet.
The Draped Bust Half Cent probably has a plain edge, but coins of that era often were made from scrap copper or occasionally an old planchet or cut down coin which might have had edge lettering or gripped edges or some other edge device. Someone has to be the first to discover such an error from a time where many errors exist. Then varieties are usually identified by Cohen number in the Half Cent series. Each die was made individually and are identifiable as far as we know. Obverse andd Reverse dies were not always replaced at the same time and each pairing is identified with the aforementioned Cohen number (ie C-1, C-2, C-3 etc.) The copperheads then establish die states as the individuals dies break and fail. You can find much on both the net and on this site using the search feature. This post purchase paper chase is as fun to me as acquisition of the coins, but I may be a little nutts. I suggest you try to do this yourself first. Then when you think you have an answer, plenty of copperheads like myself will be more than happy to confirm or correct your findings.
