1833 Bust Half

VF30.

Yeah, I'd go VF20 on this one.

Look at the strength with which the stars are drawn towards the rim - the sides of those points are darn near parallel. They really wore Bust Half dies down to the nubbin, and this one was about as worn as it gets. When you see the inside points of the stars starting to draw, you know it's late in the day. You can expect physical wear of the die to be a factor, and basining to have been compromised leading to a disparity of strike quality between center and edge. While the rim seems to be G4-level worn into the devices, there's still remaining detail on the clasp, which usually exits early.

Grading this one based on what the dies are still capable of giving at this point, I see a VF20 coin.

I was looking at the latest Coin World grading guide and that's why I decided to put this one up there. The obverse looks like a very low grade, Good, maybe VG. But the reverse looks like a strong candidate for VF (except for the rim). I'm not familiar enough with bust half strikes to know how typical it is for a coin like this to grade out at the big services. Of course, I don't plan on sending in a low-end coin like this to a service, but whenever I go to sell, I want to have a fair grade set.