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Posted 05/29/2014 6:11 pm
Thanks for all your comments and estimates of grade. First I'd like to address the the Capped Bust mintage of 750K vs. the Draped Bust mintage of 301K - some good points were made about people saving the old style and circulating the new style. In reading Bust Half Fever the author goes through some mathematical calculations based on the number of die marriages and says that the 750K capped bust halfs was probably only 300K. 
Second and most important to me is the grading. When I was considering this coin I thought that maybe they were smoking some funny stuff at NGC that day.
Oh, I didn't mention that the NGC grade is VF30. More research tells me that the first year of the new design was a production nightmare. The metal didn't flow well and the technology was non-existent. Many bust halfs over the years are weak strikes but the 1807s are weak in random areas making them difficult to grade. Sometimes it's the dentils, or the clasp, or Pluribus, or the left wing and often combinations of these. In looking at previous sales at Heritage I saw AU53 halfs that looked XF40 and VF30 halfs that looked like VF20.
Second and most important to me is the grading. When I was considering this coin I thought that maybe they were smoking some funny stuff at NGC that day.
Oh, I didn't mention that the NGC grade is VF30. More research tells me that the first year of the new design was a production nightmare. The metal didn't flow well and the technology was non-existent. Many bust halfs over the years are weak strikes but the 1807s are weak in random areas making them difficult to grade. Sometimes it's the dentils, or the clasp, or Pluribus, or the left wing and often combinations of these. In looking at previous sales at Heritage I saw AU53 halfs that looked XF40 and VF30 halfs that looked like VF20.
