GtG poll: Capped Bust half, 1834 (large date, small letters)

The Bust half is in hand now. It is a handsome coin. I thought it might be more lustrous than the pictures and it is, though not quite so much as I expected. The luster, while present, is a bit subdued on the obverse, but there. The reverse has a nice subtle "cartwheel" effect. I can see how this was a hard coin to image properly, and it definitely looks less flat in hand. I like it.

When viewed in diffuse sunlight outdoors on a cloudy day yesterday morning, the coin had an overall light goldish tone to it. Very light - I believe this could be referred to as "champagne"-colored toning. It's essentially a 90% white coin with those faint goldish overtones. I think you might know what I'm talking about if you've looked at enough high grade old silver coins.

I've told my swap partner that I am satisfied with the deal, so I'm just waiting to hear what he thinks of my 1723-SSC shilling.

And then there is the matter of the unexpected gift coin he included.

OK, so I figured he knew I was into love tokens and I might be getting a love token on a Seated dime or something, when he said "a nice holed coin". Maybe even a holey Seated quarter or something.

This is not a love token, but it is indeed a nice holed coin!

All I can say now is ... wow.

This was my freebie:


(*With these as holeys, and the hole in this position, you find yourself wondering if there was once a "C" or "D" mintmark under there. I had a really interesting 1851 with a "peekaboo" mintmark, one time. Consensus in the CU forum discussion favored it being a "C" rather than an "O", which was really neat- and made it the only Charlotte coin I've owned, to date.)

That kind of evaporates any doubts on the fairness of the deal, wouldn't you say? @TypeCoin971793 - what's your verdict now? I'm content, which is all that counts, but I'm interested to hear your renewed opinion in light of the bonus in the trade.

What a nice guy. I'd never done any deals with him before.

Public shout-out to "FallGuy" on Collectors Universe - a very fair and fun person to swap with.