1853 Half Dime - Submit Or Not

Nice Coin, EF40-45...Redbook about $65.00. With 13,210,020 minted it is the most common of the series. The cost of slabbing vs value may be a consideration as well as what you plan on doing with the coin. Mike

I think everyone is in the range, but it looks like some old cleaning(small amount) And nice job on the photos

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Originally posted by ducky1100

This may not be the place but a little history of the coin.

2 days before I left for Vietnam my Dad gave me the coin, really tightly wrapped in a plastic bag (and a real good thing it was). I'm one of many X-Marines who were involved in "The Siege at Ka Sane" (I'm going to Heaven because I've already been to Hell). During the early stages of the Siege, I was involved in a major fire fight and got hit pretty bad. My precious coin package was covered, no a better term would be soaked in bl... (well, you get the picture.) It stayed with me, in my hands for just about the duration, bringing back precious thoughts of home and my loved ones.
Am I a gambler, not really,.... do I really care even if it grades MS-71 PL, "NO",.... I've been thinking of getting it slabbed (professionally) to protect it. Putting it here killed 2 birds for me, a little practice in grading and a chance to share it with others.

Thanks for letting me rant.

Dick Brambilla

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Sir,

From one disabled vet to another, I want to thank you for the service you performed for the country. I was involved in a little incident (Saudi Arabia) which left me with with everlasting scars & memories which will never go away.

As far as the coin, I wouldn't get it slabbed if you plan on keeping it and it sure sounds important enough to hang on to, but that's just me

Semper Fi
Ben

Dick, much as it pains me, I gotta go along with Rick on this one in regard to slabbing the coin yourself. The main advantages of professional slabbing are that a grade goes along with it and most top grading companies will encapsulate it such that it's well protected against the ouside world short of major deconstruction to crack it out of its slab. In any instance, given its personal significance, it is important to get it under cover; a coin goes through a lot of experiences in its lifetime (which may be centuries or millennia), any number of which can degrade the coin.

Also thanking you for your service. I spent 24 years Active and Reserve in the Army Signal Corps including the obligatory tour in RVN - split tour, first in 69th Sig Bn, Tan Son Nhut and Gia Dinh, then Americal (23d Inf) Div at FSB Bayonet, Chu Lai in I Corps. Also bloodied and disabled.

Fred

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Originally posted by scoutjim99

ducky1100 from A combat vet to another combat vet. fred and rick are right on the money with your coin. Once again to echo the words of these fine gentleman, and fellow patriot brothers, ***Thank you for your service**..

by the way I served in Iraq OIF II with A Guy nicknamed Duck (Mortar Platoon) Who was a vietnam Vet AS well..

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Jim, I volunteered for Desert Storm in 1991 as Desert Shield was getting warmed up. I wanted to fight in an "honorable war" to at least mitigate the shame and stigma left over from Vietnam. A LOT of us RVN vets still in the Reserves wanted activation for the same reason (Schwarzkopf included) to at least partially make up for Vietnam. However, I had too much rank (LtC; also, my physical profile was less than a picket fence due to RVN) and they held off cutting orders until after the 100-hour war was over, but the Army wanted to activate me for the reduction in forces for a 179-day tour. Two weeks before activation, I had a series of seizures which cancelled my AD tour and my Army Reserve career.

I'm glad Duck made it.

Fred

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Originally posted by ducky1100

Fred,

Look what I started, I'm sorry, Maybe we can take this someplace else?
Fred, I want to thank you (along with Ben, Jim, Rick, et al, I feel Like I have NEW friends) your feelings to mitigate really hit a soft spot in me. Not to whine, but in my little accident I also lost sight in 1 eye, along with, like Bonedigger put it, emotional scars that will never go away. But, the WORST and the thing that will bother me until the I die, is that as I walked through the Airport (in Full Dress) after arriving home, "My Wonderful Fellow Americans", SPIT AT ME and Yelled, " YOU FU___NG BABY KILLER". Yes people it did happen, it's not just something that was made up to make for "Good Stories" in the newspapers. Fred, I have a feeling that you may have experienced similar stories and/or resentments ? I did this for My Country, I wasn't Drafted, I signed into the Corps, MY choice, because I felt it was RIGHT, but that's another story.
Again, I have ranted needlessly, thanks to all. I need a drink.

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Dick, we often go astray here on CCF - it's what makes us a family, looking beyond the basic aspect of coins and into the people who collect them.

Our experiences upon return from RVN were not only similar, they were almost identical. I thought my service in Vietnam was bad enough... until I returned to the States and was treated as a pariah. Not only was I spit upon and called a baby-killer (it didn't help that I wore the Americal Division -Calley's unit- patch of the Southern Cross on a blue field on my right shoulder), but I had dog doo-doo thrown at me and I was shunned by non-vets. I returned to college (grad school) and I couldn't get dates until I learned not to reveal that I was a VietVet whereupon I was dropped like a hot potato when the girls eventually learned of my RVN experience. This attitude against RVN vets didn't go away when the war ended; it is still with us as evidenced by the bitter recriminations that resurfaced in the Kerry - Bush election. Even in recent retirement, I had two aging war protesters in my own RV park upon learning I was a VietVet state, "Oh. You're one of THEM." It will never go away. 37 years later, I'm still on the defensive, avoid people in general (except in Boy Scouting where, despite some alienation, there is considerably more tolerance), spend most of my time in non-people-contact activities such as coins and ham radio, and prefer camping in isolated wilderness areas thus minimizing direct human contact.

Enough bitterness. To the credit of Iraq War opponents, they have pained themselves to separate the soldiers and Marines who serve from those who sent them there.

Fred

also I collect Vfw and American legion Chips , Plates and or coasters If any of you would like to trade for some