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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;johnmilton, post: 7785096, member: 101855&quot;]I had one chance to own an 1802 C-1, &quot;old reverse&quot; half cent. A dealer friend of mine put together an outstanding set of half cents. No one knew he had it until he decided to sell it. Ironically, NGC get the variety wrong when I saw the piece. They called it the more common variety, but it was clearly the rare coin, and a very nice one too with VF sharpness and only few minor problems.</p><p><br /></p><p>If this piece had been offered to me circa 1990, I would have bought it in a heart beat, but by the time I had a shot at it, I had sold my collection. I simply hit a brick wall and could take the collection no further, no matter how much money I had. The varieties were in &quot;strong hands,&quot; and they weren&#039;t selling any time soon.</p><p><br /></p><p>Here is the 1802 C-2 half cent I had in my collection. It came from the Garrett Collection. It may have been the most widely published 1802 half cent at the time because Dave Bowers pictured it several times in his books that were connected with those sales.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1335908[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Oddly enough, PCGS or NGC kicked this coin back to me in a body bag for &quot;cleaning.&quot; I eventually got it into a straight graded &quot;little white&quot; ANACS holder and sold it in that format when I was a dealer. This coin was mentioned in Breen&#039;s half cent book condition census list.</p><p><br /></p><p>The 1802 C-1 is a &quot;naked eye&quot; die variety. It has the same reverse as the 1800 half cent which was originally made for the coins issued in the 1790&#039;s. You will note that this reverse is far different from the one shown above.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1335909[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>The late Calvin Goodrich owned an 1802 C-1 for several years before he knew he had it. He had a very low grade 1802 which had a reverse that was almost slick. One day the light from a window caught the coin just right, and he saw the hint of the different style of lettering. I saw the piece, and would have picked it up right away. Of course, he was not in the market to sell the coin. I would have bought it fill the slot in my set.</p><p><br /></p><p>Just for background, all of the 1802 half cents are overdate coins with the &quot;2&quot; over a &quot;0.&quot; All of them were made made from cut down large cent planchets that were not nice enough to be used for large cents. That&#039;s one of the reasons why the quality of the copper used for these coins is often poor.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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