An opportunity for a couple of 1/2 cents

Maybe he was dyslexic and it's an 1181 half cent from the past, sent to the future from the time traveling mint employees union boss (Elijah Hoffa).

 

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I have always loved Half Cents, but I am in the minority. There are way more Large Cent collectors and trust me from experience when you upgrade coins in your collection they are not easy to sell. As someone mentioned they are "slow sellers" and the Proof only issues are priced out of reach of most average collectors.

Finally coins are very poor investments. PCGS did a study of the investment return of various rare coins over a 60 year period and although they initially appeared to create a solid return over time, when adjusted for inflation they offer a meager return less than 2%.

 

Here is the 1835 that I did buy. I am happy with it. I love the classic head/capped bust coins. This goes well with my 1835 dime. I passed on the other two coins. My eye is on a 1829 dime and 1832 half dime. Here in Northern California half cents sell fast. Just not that many over here. Thanks for the reply’s.

 

Here are comparable examples of the Braided Hair half cent and large cent in high grade.

The Half Cent. This piece is PCGS graded MS-64, R&B



The Large Cent. This piece is PCGS graded MS-65, R&B, CAC

 

Which half cent has the prettiest design? I have always been partial to the Draped Bust type which was issued from 1800 to 1808.



This 1806 half cent, which is Cohen variety #4, Large 6, Stems, was from the Chapman brothers hoard. The Chapman brothers were 19th and early 20th century coin dealers. They supposedly had a keg full of Mint State 1806 half cents. This piece is in an MS-62, Brown holder. This piece is regarded as "common" in Mint State although that is a relative term.

 

Which half cents are scarce? I was in my lcs yesterday they have several. They also used to have several capped bust half dollars. They don't anymore lol. There was a real nice fine 1806 draped bust half cent. He had a few nice capped bust half cents as well. Mostly mid grade. But not trashed or problematic.

 

Beauty mark and all...

 

The Red Book has long included the words, “All half cents are scarce.” Off the top of my head, I think that total mintage for the half cent from 1793 to 1857 is 7.5 million. When you consider that less than 5% of the total still survives, that's not very many coins. Were it not for a few hoards, it would be a lot lower.

 

My lcs has a couple capped bust half’s. Maybe I should pick one up. What seems hard to find is capped bust quarters

 

When I started getting serious about collecting, my focus was half-cents. I then switched to large cents, but they have been getting so pricey that I may go back to half-cents. I have several grading from G to AU. I hope to upgrade the Gs to VFs someday. Investment? No. Collecting for enjoyment? Yes.

 

Just received Ed Fuhrman's first half cent book, The Half Cent Book/Draped Bust Varieties/1800-1808.

Actually the timing is great.
I was looking for a new area to concentrate on and I had decided on Draped Bust half cents.
And "POW", his new book got a write-up in the latest Coin World.

His next book is on Classic Head and Braided Hair half cents.
Apparently it will be out soon.
I'll jump on that one too.
I've got the full Cohen variety Classic Head set; I need to do the die state identifications.
And I've got a full Red Book listed Braided Hair set.
I'll need Fuhrman's book to help me ID the Cohen varieties; there are bunches of them.

 

I collected the half cents by Cohen variety in the 1980s. It was a lot of fun, but after a while you hit a wall and can’t go any further with varieties. I got within four varieties of having all of the Draped Bust varieties. A few collectors had them, and a few collectors had more than one example.

Die state collectors really got to me. Almost all of these varieties are rarer than most any “modern” key date coin that you can name. The supply of these coins is limited. Some of these guys would line up as many as 9 or 10 examples of the same variety. The 1804 C-6 comes immediately to mind. That meant that finding just one example of some of these coins became harder for beginners and intermediate collectors.

I felt that I almost had an obligation to sell my duplicates when I upgraded a variety for that reason. Ultimately I pulled the pug and used my half cent die variety collection as seed money for my coin dealer business.

 

Sorry, the Devil made me do it...

 

It's funny what a difference one little "L" can make.