Help With 1828 Half Cent Variety

Thank you Dave...I guess I still dont know what the C-2 means,, and if the coin is more valuable because of it...If you read this could you point me to some good reference material.....My 1806 Half Cent came back C-1 Fine 15...Guess some research is due there also....Thank you again, Dave.......BR

To summarize from "American Half Cents" by Roger S. Cohen, Jr: 1828 has three varieties.
Variety 1 13 star obverse, Rarity 3
Variety 2 12 star obverse, Reverse shows a berry below the left stand of M in AMERICA, Rarity 2
Variety 3 13 star obverse, with uneven date digits, reverse will show a low you of UNITED, Rarity 1.

babysitr-

I'm complimented you asked me about your 12-star Half Cent. Sorry it took a while - I've been offline.

The C-2 attribution designates the Cohen-2 Half Cent variety, which indicates the 12-star variety. Die rotation is not usually separated out as a variety, and may or may not be noted on a holder. If your coin has some die rotation, that is cool, but I wouldn't expect it to increase (or decrease) the value.

That said, I should mention that the 12-star variety is my very favorite US coin variety. It resulted from an error when the die maker was applying the stars to the obverse die. He was supposed to punch 7 stars on the left and six on the right - for a total of 13. But he apparently had the kind of mental glitch I so often experience, and he punched 7 on the left and 5 on the right. He centered the 5 very nicely, so it wasn't that he stopped short. He just planned for, and then stamped, only five.

And it says something about the early mint - and the relative importance of Half Cents - that they went ahead and used the die.

Besides the great back story, the beauty of this variety is that one can see it easily with the naked eye. I can even distinguish it without my glasses!

The 12-star variety does bring a nice price premium, probably even a bit more than its rarity merits. In VF-25, it's worth about twice as much as a 13-star example.

So congratulations on a great coin!