Half Cents & Large Cents: What To Look For/Beware Of

That will be a nice set Collects82.

You can find nice low grade draped bust Half Cents that have good eye appeal. I have a low grade 1807 in an early die state with a mis-aligned obverse die. It's one of my favorites and wasn't expensive.

I found the pictures of the low grade 1807. I always thought it was attractive for such a low grade coin.

Some truly excellent advice here. I will offer an alternate point of view though. Not every collector wants to acquire just 1 or 2 coins a year and some of this comes down to owning that piece of history and an example of a coin you might not be able to afford in a higher grade or not wanting an example you can afford in the very lowest grades that is barely discernible as far as detail. All to say, in some instances, I think there is nothing wrong with acquiring a Details grade (tooled coins aside) that has nice eye appeal and nicely represents the coin type. It's all individual choice and again, it's hard to quibble with the old adage of "buying the best coin you can afford." But when it comes to early copper, sometimes that may be a Details grade. Anyhow, to each his own pursuits. Everyone enjoys this hobby differently. Happy collecting!

I'll offer my standard pitch here. In today's market, eye appeal is more important than technical grade. A VF-35 with strong eye appeal likely will be a better coin than an ugly EF-45. If you have to use the word "but" in your assessment of the coin, take a hard pass.

Just my two half-cents worth.

On a related note, here is one of the early coppers I acquired which is a 1794 Large Cent, VF Details with Environmental Damage which in this instance is due to corrosion. The Details coin provided me an attractive, reasonably priced option for my type set where normally I would have left the 1794 hole empty. The corrosion was pretty evenly distributed and it had reasonable detail with nice eye appeal. Of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder/collector. :)

Carbon spots will NOT come off using acetone.
Acetone is used to remove dirt, crud, fingerprints, glue and oily residues.
Acetone is used for conserving coins.

The removal of carbon spots is in the realm of cleaning coins which is a no-no unless the coin is so bad that it can't be further harmed.

@NumisEd, I happen to think it's lovely! Since early copper is so old, I believe we can be more forgiving with carbon spots. So while the "goal" might be to find early copper with no carbon spots, sometimes we might compromise.

The below coin is what I refer to as my "Ash Wednesday" Half Cent, lol. I bought it as an MS64RD w/CAC. Despite that "distracting" spot, I felt there was a LOT to like. I resubmitted it to PCGS via Reconsideration, and apparently they liked it a lot too, and added on a "+", despite them having graded that coin VERY recently. As noted, CAC liked it too. Since the cert number remains unchanged with the Reconsideration submission, and that CAC ignores "+" grades, CAC then automatically reapplied their sticker for just $3. This coin then went from a pop of 32 with 7 finer, to a pop of only 3 with only 4 finer. I don't mind the accompanying increase in value either.

"Burnished" describes a coin's finish. Burnished coins have a soft, matte-like finish. They're somewhat shiny, but not as shiny or as vibrant as a proof coin. Burnished coins are smooth to the touch and display a great deal of detail.