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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;yakpoo, post: 7822218, member: 18157&quot;]I&#039;ve been looking (just looking) at Proof Half Cents lately and saw this one on Heritage...</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://dyn1.heritagestatic.com/lf?set=path%5B2%2F4%2F4%2F4%2F8%2F24448282%5D%2Csizedata%5B850x600%5D&amp;call=url%5Bfile%3Aproduct.chain%5D" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>As I look at this coin, I&#039;m drawn back to the origins of currency. Economies could only grow so large on a barter system so various materials have held universal value over time. Most notably, gold and silver. All that was lacking was a trusted standard of weights and measures...backed by the force of law. That evolved over time to give us various amounts of a metal alloy for given denominations.</p><p><br /></p><p>When I look at the half cent, I see a round hunk of copper, smooth and unblemished. Then, a certification stamp is mashed into the metal like a fist into a ball of pizza dough. That&#039;s what I see, a very specifically prepared ball of pizza dough with its weight and purity mashed into it. It could just as easily be a Chop Mark...or an &quot;NE&quot;. The value of a coin is in it&#039;s composition, not it&#039;s certification stamp.</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://dyn1.heritagestatic.com/lf?set=path%5B5%2F4%2F9%2F6%2F5496022%5D&amp;call=url%5Bfile%3Aproduct.chain%5D" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>Over the years, our certification stamps have become more ornate and prideful...conveying not only the purity and weight of the metal, but common themes that binds us as a nation.</p><p><br /></p><p>I find numismatics enthralling and sometimes forget it&#039;s the metal that&#039;s the coin, not the certification stamp or the message it conveys. Excuse me while I make another Jack &amp; Coke...[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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