I dug this 1814 half dollar on a War of 1812 Battle sight. I was hoping to get some help with grading and the 5 under the eagle is missing part and it doesn’t appear to be scratched off. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks Richard
p.s. I'm not sure what's going on with the 5. My first thought would be that it was as-struck and a feature of the die. Regardless, someone will likely come on here and know better than I.
The coin in question appears to be an O-102 which is a R-2 coin. The coin indeed has very nice XF details although I'd say that the incomplete 5 is due to weak strike than anything else. This die unfortunately was rusted, so it was cleaned with a wire brush by a mint employee which cause substantial die pitting, esp on the obv. the clash marks on the reverse really give it away
it's just wrong There is no way this coin was in the ground for almost 200 years. Something is wrong with this.
Maybe. At first glance I would be inclined to agree. But the surface of the coin is pretty grainy, so some minor corrosion has taken place. But some soils do not attack coins, especially silver coins, the way other soils do. There is another member here who often posts dug coins that he finds. And many of them are very well preserved. But I do find it somewhat puzzling as to why this coin does appear to still have some mint luster present. That is extremely unusual in a dug coin !
I actually dug it a few years ago on my birthday March 13 right next to Fort George in the woods. I have found that coins found in the woods ars much nicer then ones found in farm fields or parks. The reason is that in the woods there are no chemicals used so the coins don't get corroded as baddly. Check out this link to me collection http://www.pbase.com/richard_canada/root Rich
The coin will go XF40-XF45 for the grade. Cleaned, yea. But most of them are. I am having a problem with one of the main diagnostics on this coin that is missing. On every O-102 I have ever seen there is a die clash in the Shield. I think I can see it in the shield but can not say for certain with these pictures. The 5, this is from wear on the die and being struck weakly. This can be seen in the denticals surrounding the area and the leg directly above it as well. Regardless, its a nice coin and a great find.
