1827 Draped Bust Half

thank you for the insight. the cheek was a concern for me as it looked like maybe corrosion. I was offering him a little more then $400 but now that I know I will continue my quest for a nice raw coin.

bill

I agree with SSuperDdave and his expert advice. This forum is a great place to learn and to ask questions. You will find many bust half and early copper collectors.

Buy one of these that was made in the US.

Welcome aboard, Bill.

Fine advice here by our respected members. There also appear to be a number of small marks and a few, tiny, round punch marks. This may explain the absence of close-up pics. I strongly suspect that this coin suffered environmental damage, ED, and if so, may have received a more harsh or abrasive cleaning than dipping. Regardless, the surface looks unnatural. It's conceivable to me that the seller or an acquaintance may have found this coin in the ground. It appears that the seller digs arrowheads. It would perhaps be telling to closely examine the area behind Liberty's cap where there may be some corrosion?

Iegwn82: What Ssuper Ddave said alone is enough to make RUN AWAY from that coin. I'm going to add my comments. First of all on Bust Half Dollars they did not circulated near to the extent that the Bust Quarters and Dimes did so there are much more VF-AU graded coins in the Half Dollars out there than the Quarters and Dollars. That kept in mind remember this, if a Bust Half Dollar was minted when Andrew Jackson was President (1829-1837) then it is common as date although if it is certain die variety it can be scarce or rare but you need Overton's Book on the series to know that.
If John Quincy Adams was the President when the Half was minted (1825-1829) it can be scarce but would only be rare if it is a particular die variety.

I looked at the coin and before I read anything especially what Ssuper Ddave wrote my first thought was that this coin is cleaned and unnatural. I am a coin dealer and if I saw this on the coin show circuit I would not want to even pick this up. On ebay or USA Coin Book I would not even click on the picture. Think about this: would a circulated 90% silver coin that's more than 150 years really look that white and still have original tone? Here are two other examples to look at. On USA Coin Book if you go to the Bust Half Dollar section look at the 1809 AU Details Cleaned for $489.00 and the 1820/19 Square Base 2 AU Details Cleaned and Edge Damage for $739.00. Notice that although NGC did slab both of them they did so as AU Details - Cleaned not AU-50 or AU-53. More important though is: Do you notice how the 1827 you looked at is much whiter than those two coins are? Not to mention that the 1809 is a much better date than 1827. And that guy wants double over what's being asked for the 1809. Sounds like one of those deals for the Brooklyn Bridge.

$1,500 is a LOT of money to spend on a date that's not rare and anyone be that Ssuper Ddave, me, another coin dealer should really know what we are buying. I haven't checked my price sheet on 1827 Half Dollars but my guess on $1,500 would be something in the range for an MS-63-64 or maybe up to MS-65. That Choice BU (MS-63) to GEM BU (MS-65). Don't put that kind of money at risk until you've studied the series. Get a free account at Hertiage (Dallas, Texas) ha.com and that combined with ebay start looking at the slabbed Bust Half Dollars (slabbed by either PCGS, NGC, or ANACS) so you can get an idea of what's cleaned and what's not. I hate to tell you but the big three I just mentioned are somewhat liberal in passing a cleaned coins without giving the "Details" grade especially PCGS. NGC is the most conservative of the three in terms of looking for originality in tone or color.

I should not forget that if you yourself do not know how to grade Bust Half Dollars go to Amazon.com and buy The Official American Numismatic Association Grading Standards for United States coins and the other book would be Photograde. It will be about $30.00. The pictures of every coin in every CIRCULATED grade will teach you to be technical about it. As a general rule grading circulated coins (especially below grade AU-50) is very technical militaristic like in that it either hits the general target for the bow and arrow or it does not.

Hope this helps. They are some people in numismatics you don't want to do business with and this one is a textbook example.

thank you all for the feedback it was definitely enlightening. The coin definitely seemed little to good to be true but. a lesson lived is a lesson learned!

Does not seem that this seller sells many coins?