My New Half Dime

This is what I picked up this weekend.

 

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Nice coin. I need one for my type set. I saw a real nice choice AU 1839 today at the coin shop, but the price was a bit high for me.

 

I don't have too many half dimes. This one was a bit over 1000x face value, but it looked SO nice, sitting in the display tray, I just had to take it home.

 

WOW...real beauty.
Nice buy SCNuss:thumb:

 

BTW don't the coin look cleaned or is it just the pics.

 

Based off the glare too hard to say if cleaned, but it is one nice coin. I like it.

 

Ya, pics are a little blurred. I think the coin looks good.

 

I don't think it has been, but can't say for certain. There is some toning on the reverse.

 

Nice strike, too. congrats!

 

"where did you get this coin ?"

My local coin dealer, who I've done business with for several years.

What makes you think it isn't real?

 

Before I read your post I was wondering what was happening on the reverse. There seems to be raised areas there to the right and left of the words Half Dime.

 

These are the areas I'm talking about:

 

They could be clash marks - very common on very small coins (e.g., 3 Cents, Half Dimes, $1 Gold, etc.).

 

And that's exactly what I was wondering prior to Doug's post. I figured that the folks that know more about such errors might chime in. Every time I start talking errors I seem to make myself look/feel dense.

 

Could tooling have done this? I have checked several on heritage and the one thing I notice is that on most coins the 12 and 13 star centers are not sharp. Not an expert on these coins so will leave it up to you all.

 

I'm far from being an expert on these coins but the first thing I noticed on this coin was the huge right arm and the filled in dentils. It just didn't seem right to me. The NGC coin seems to prove my doubts about this coin. I'd return it to your coin shop dealer just to be on the safe side.

Bruce

 

I was just flipping back and forth quickly between the one posted and the real one Doug posted and to me, the date sticks out like a sore thumb. The numbers aren't right on this. Flip back and forth between pics quickly, and compare the open areas in the bases of the 5's. Then compare the 8 on both coins. The 8 on the one posted appears to be very fat and the openings in the centers appear to be much smaller than on the real one Doug posted.

The rim and the raised portion going by the F on Half, for being a coin in this good of condition, sends up major red flags. I'd demand a refund and then I'd destroy it so he can't sell it to somebody else.

I would say you're normally not going to find an 1855 coin, loose, that is still that shiny, that hasn't been at least recently dipped, if not fake. Sorry.