GTG - 1827 Half Dollar

Ouch...

 

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I attributed a bust half for someone, and he flat-out said he didn't care. I replied, "Fair enough. But I have made thousands because of people like you."

 

And the long-awaited answer:



And I found this coin in a previous sale. I will probably crack it out and put it in my type set. Original or not, she's very pretty.

https://coins.ha.com/itm/bust-half-.../1168-7765.s?ic4=GalleryView-Thumbnail-071515

 

Well I was sort of right. From the images, the toning lookes pretty market acceptable to me.

 

Really like the look of the coin, nice find

 

Important point there - TPG's are simply judging whether or not the toning is "market acceptable," not whether or not it's "natural" even though that's the term they sometimes apply to it. ICG disagrees with NGC on this one, and I don't see how NGC has people more capable than Randy Campbell or Skip Fazzari. Heck, NGC might disagree with themselves if the coin were cracked and resubmitted.

So ultimately every toning evaluation lies in the eyes of the beholder, unless you're willing to blindly believe what you're told. Me, I find the toning acceptable in my market.

 

I don't really care from a buying perspective (not worth a premium to me, except when buying for resale), but I will make a HUGE deal about it when selling.

 

I will be taking this coin to a show tomorrow to get opinions. It will stay in the slab until then, just to see what people say about ICG (should be entertaining with the grade covered). Then it will be promptly cracked out and placed in my type set.

 

Original or not - I like the way it looks in the pictures. Nice pickup.

 

Cracked out and in the album. The luster is extremely hard to capture accurately in pictures.

 

She looks happy to me.

Keep these images for the next time someone worries about the diameter of their Bust Half. They're a pretty good illustration of the variance.

 

Well, I showed her around at a show, and the variety of opinions was interesting. I covered up the grade to receive unbiased opinions.

One guy I know from my coin club said it was XF. He blamed the grade on old-school, by-the-book technical grading. He is a member of EAC, so I guess he EAC graded my half. No problem there. It was nice hearing him discuss the difference between technical grading and market grading.

Most people called it AU-55/58, and one said that many dealers would sell it as an MS-61. They all said that there were obvious, yet subtle, points of wear. Looking at the coins they had for sale showed that there are different grading standards for buying and selling, the latter being much looser.

One said it artificially toned. After talking with this dealer, it became apparent that he really knew what he was doing. He also priced all of his coins fairly, so I spent the most money at his table.

One person questioned why I had covered up the slab label, and figured that I had done so to hide a "cleaned" designation, so he called it cleaned. When I told him that it graded AU-55, he said "Oh. Then it is a nice coin."

 

I don't think it AT'd. I think it had a dip at some point and retoned in an album or envelope, as many have done. Nothing wrong with that. AU 55 seemed right to me. Truly "original" silver from that era is going to be very, very dark and it just isn't such a popular look. I like the coin.