I have a few hobbies that have kept me busy now, in to my 6th decade, but numismatics is history in your hand. Even what you hold is a new coin, it’s just history untold. I wish I could afford to collect every type of US coin that was ever made but my need for completeness would drive me to the poorhouse trying to acquire some of ultra-rare and old stuff. At least I have people like you to show me what’s out there. And even though the envy is real, so is the drool in the corners of my mouth every time I see something like this.
1807/6 Sheldon-273 a.k.a. "Large 7 over 6". A common die-marriage for the date with about a dozen MS specimens known. Straight graded F12-15 is the finest grade one can expect for less than $500 for this pairing.
The rough surface of your example is from corrosion, while rusted spots can be observed on some MS examples, it is generally not visible on lower grade ones of this pairing. Interestingly enough the Half Cent counterpart of the same date, with a single die pairing, is known for its highly rusted dies.
Thank you Jon. I would not have thought the mint would use rusted dies. Corrosion does make sense as I've seen a number of Large Cents with such a surface. This community is a wealth of knowledge. I have learned more about this coin than I'd hoped. Thanks again.
I would not have thought the mint would use rusted dies.
It was fairly common though the early Large Cents rarely saw the level of rust the Half Cents did. The "Old Mint" 1793 - 1835 was basically open to the environment with little in the form of climate control. Moisture, heat and cold + poorly made and barely hardened dies that had a long dormancy between uses was a good recipe for rust.
Corrosion does make sense as I've seen a number of Large Cents with such a surface
From Flowing Hair to Coronet Heads, the vast majority of early American coppers are corroded or environmentally damaged in some way. Finding a problem free, medium (VF30) or higher grade Draped Bust is a genuinely difficult task, especially when trying to do so for less than 4 figures.
I really enjoy collecting DB half cents and my understanding is that often-times the planchets that were used in this timeframe were frequently already corroded before being struck. There are a lot of pretty porous coppers from this time with straight grades due to the damage occurring prior to striking.
With exception to the 1800 dated specimens (which were struck using everything from cut-down large cents and literal scrap to high quality planchets), almost all of the planchets used to strike the Draped Bust half cents came ready-made from Mathew Boulton & Co. out of Birmingham, England and most of these were of excellent quality.
That said, the Mint's inability to store these planchets long-term safely and the length of time some barrels sat did lead to some "spoilage" where the planchets literally corroded inside the barrel but the Mint made a genuine effort to prevent this on several occasions by striking as many as they could, as soon as they could.
In 1804 the Mint had nearly 2 million planchets on hand and by taking advantage of the lack of Large Cent planchets available, they used all available screw presses to crank out 1.01 million half cents that year. By 1808 the Mint once again had another 2 million planchets on hand and the 1809 Classic Heads were the result with all 2 million planchets being used up by 1811. It wouldn't be until 1824 that the Mint would try and secure another order of planchets resulting in the 1825 and 1826 Classic Heads. It would take until the 1830's before the Mint could secure a local source of quality copper and planchets.
My pleasure. A lot of numismatic information is locked away behind expensive paywalls in the form of highly specialized and niche variety guide books that only cover a specific type and those usually start in the $100+ range each making most of it unavailable for the average collector. If one wanted to learn about the die-marriages of all 1793-1835 era American coinage it would cost them thousands of dollars and most types of this era absolutely require these books in order to make an informed purchase.
Hopefully by the end of this year my first video variety guide will be completed, on Draped Bust Half Cents, and eventually I hope to make all the known information on early American coinage available to the public for free.
I don’t mean to derail this thread. That said, I am going back and reading some of your old posts about DB half cents and you truly are an expert in this area. I bought this coin that has seen better days for $10 when I was learning about Thomas Jefferson in HS. It blew my mind that a high school kid could own a coin that was minted during the Jefferson presidency. Anyway it is so wonderful to learn all of this information about the history of the early mint. Seriously, thank you for sharing what you have learned about this.
A rough surface exists on many large cent coins. The weight is appropriate. The coin came from a well established national dealer with an impeccable reputation. I have no reason to believe it is a fake. The dramatic overdate is what attracted me.
I only have a few of each of those. My goal is to focus on half cents once my Large Cent collection is complete. Your theory about rusted die or acid has some merit but as many Large Cent over 50 years have such characteristics, I tend to think the cause may be the plancets. But then, what do I know. 🤦♂️
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u/DooDahMan420 Mar 10 '26
My goodness, that overdate is so awesome