Rare George Washington Halfpenny (Poll added)

[SHERMANVILLE ILLINOIS]

Re: Rare George Washington Halfpenny

Outstanding

 

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[Colonial KirkPA]

Re: Rare George Washington Halfpenny

Looks like one of those coins Zoyboy bought off E-Bay.

It is nice, ain't it, unc?

 

[Don in SJ]

Re: Rare George Washington Halfpenny

I am still waiting until, Don in SJ, responds. He really know his Colonials, so he may be able to estimate the value.

Seriously, dudes, how much do you think it would sell for?

Very Nice find Kirk, I will send you a PM today

Don

 

[Colonial KirkPA]

Re: Rare George Washington Halfpenny

I am still waiting until, Don in SJ, responds. He really know his Colonials, so he may be able to estimate the value.

Seriously, dudes, how much do you think it would sell for?

Very Nice find Kirk, I will send you a PM today

Don

Sounds good, Don. I am curious to hear what you have to say about it. I am still floating on the Ninth cloud now. hahaha

 

[Don in SJ]

Re: Rare George Washington Halfpenny

I have seen most sold in auctions listed as 1793/2 for the date, but only a few have the 2 still visible, the rest like yours do not, but it would still be considered an overdate since all of that type was made from a recut 1792 die.

Here are some excerpts from the Notre Dame website on Washington Tokens

It was the Ship Halfpenny of 1793 (Baker 18, Fuld, WA.1793/2.1) that gave the Hancock obverse portrait of Washington its widest circulation.

The date was originally cut into the die as 1792 but was changed to 1793 before being used. Apparently the dies clashed early in use. The resulted in a buckeling of the dies, evident as a bulge on the coin between 3:00 and 5:00 o'clock on the obverse. Only five extant examples are reported that are in perfect condition without the bulge. Breen states the overdate can only be seen on these five examples as it is not apparent on examples from after the die clash.

I will send you some information I gathered last night on value and let you decipher it.

Don

 

[Colonial KirkPA]

Re: Rare George Washington Halfpenny

I have seen most sold in auctions listed as 1793/2 for the date, but only a few have the 2 still visible, the rest like yours do not, but it would still be considered an overdate since all of that type was made from a recut 1792 die.

Here are some excerpts from the Notre Dame website on Washington Tokens

It was the Ship Halfpenny of 1793 (Baker 18, Fuld, WA.1793/2.1) that gave the Hancock obverse portrait of Washington its widest circulation.

The date was originally cut into the die as 1792 but was changed to 1793 before being used. Apparently the dies clashed early in use. The resulted in a buckeling of the dies, evident as a bulge on the coin between 3:00 and 5:00 o'clock on the obverse. Only five extant examples are reported that are in perfect condition without the bulge. Breen states the overdate can only be seen on these five examples as it is not apparent on examples from after the die clash.

I will send you some information I gathered last night on value and let you decipher it.

Don

Thanks, Don, for the help. I appreciate it, bud.

 

[dgaughan]

Re: Rare George Washington Halfpenny

damn kirk that is awesome you guys are digging some great stuff congrats and hh

 

[Colonial KirkPA]

Re: Rare George Washington Halfpenny

damn kirk that is awesome you guys are digging some great stuff congrats and hh

We are digging some great stuff, thanks to the kind landowners!

 

[Colonial KirkPA]

Re: Rare George Washington Halfpenny

Dudes, I will take some pics of the lettered edge tonight. There are some nice details!

 

[Don in SJ]

Re: Rare George Washington Halfpenny

Dudes, I will take some pics of the lettered edge tonight. There are some nice details!

I have two ways of photographing lettered edges, the easiest was taking about 4 or 5 of them as you go around and stitch together either with a stiching program or Irfanview. The other method is tougher, that is using a mag light reflector and shoot a photo of the coin and the edges at the same time, but I believe the lettering than comes out in reverse, not sure, have to check my archives.

Here is the lettered edge photos on my rare variety 1794 Large Cent.

Don

 

[RUDY2003]

Re: Rare George Washington Halfpenny

Super Excelletnt Washington coin bud...

Keep diggin'...

 

[Colonial KirkPA]

Re: Rare George Washington Halfpenny

I think the wet soil helped make this coin more evident. It was in an area we all hit before, but the soil was too dry.

 

[Colonial KirkPA]

Re: Rare George Washington Halfpenny

Dudes, here is some info I got from, Don in SJ. Thanks again, bud, for the help. It is some great information on my coin.

Kirk, very nice find for sure, have not seen but maybe one or two others found posted on any of the forums over the many years I have been watching, However, I was not sure of how common or rare they are, evidently they are not too common. There are at least around 60 known by PCGS, which makes the coin a R5 and maybe R4. I will show the Rarity Scale below. With that said, I looked through my catalogs and found two sold somwhat recently by the C4 auction, which is held each fall in Boston and they are not ground found, and as you can judge for youself to compare with yours, Unfortuntely we get penalized heavily for the corrosion, unless they are in competive demand. I sent the photos to a freind who is a Colonial collector and some Federal area coins and this was his response:

Don,
This is so cool - finding a Washington Ship Halfpenny!!! I have one. Actually I'm giving a talk (two talks) at the Ocean County Coin Club this Thursday night about Washingtonia! I don't know if NCS would do anything with a metal detecting find. If this were my find, I'd probably send it to you and ask if you would do your Hydrogen Peroxide treatment. I'd settle for whatever the results were. People that collect Washington coins and medals are looking for quality and surfaces. I don't think that he'll increase the value of the coin much by attempting to clean it.


http://home.comcast.net/~slospokes2/C4_Nov_2004.jpg SOLD For $275, VF20 No Corrosion

http://home.comcast.net/~slospokes2/C4_Nov_2005.jpg SOLD For $325 VF30 No Corrosion


http://www.stacks.com/lotdetail.aspx?lrid=AN00060421 SOLD For $1035 EF45 No Corrsoion and in Superb condition


1793 Washington Ship Halfpenny VF 30 First Token. Baker-18. Weight: 10.33 grams. Even brown color with pleasing surfaces and no noticeable marks.
SOLD For $286 in 1996
NO PHOTO AVAILABLE - HERITAGE AUCTIONS

So, my opinion, a good find, a special coin to keep and have great braggin rights on, but for being very valuable, nada. My guess, and it is only a guess and I would not post this, is maybe $200 but also maybe only $50-75..... Of course on e-bay, funny things can happen and it could go for more. Right now on e-bay is a slabbed one that is one of the best known, no bids yet.
Item number: 170133006998


When I said the number approx 60 known by PCGS, that does not mean there are only 60, I believe that means there have been X amount graded, other examples are most likely known.
OK here is a Rarity Scale that is somewhat considered a standard, although there is a "Univieral rarity scale" developed in 1998, but I have not seen those numbers used! But this seems to be used alot by collectors.

R8+ 1 KNOWN
R8 2 KNOWN R8 - Unique or Nearly So
R8- 3 KNOWN
R7+ 4-6 KNOWN
R7 7-9 KNOWN R7 - Extremely Rare
R7- 10-12 KNOWN
R6+ 13-18 KNOWN
R6 19-24 KNOWN R6 - Very Rare
R6- 25-30 KNOWN
R5+ 31-45 ESTIMATED
R5 46-60 ESTIMATED R5 - Rare
R5- 61-75 ESTIMATED
R4 76-200 ESTIMATED R4 - Very Scarce
R3 201-600 ESTIMATED R3 - Scarce
R2 601-2000 ESTIMATED R2 - Common
R1 OVER 2000 ESTIMATED R1 - Very Common

REFERENCE: William C. Noyes, author of United States Large Cents books.

I would save this for background knowledge


I almost posted this, except I would have left out my value opinion, it is a very judgemental thing, also not sure how to grade your coin, again, since photos are hard to see sometimes all the details or damage, so I will pass on that and just stay with my rough guess opinion on value. Even the photos on the C4 auction pages are rather hard to determine detail, but the one that sold for over a grand on STACKS site, WOW, what a pretty coin and great color photo!!

Don

PS Rarity does not always equate into value, example would be the 1916D Mercury Dime, heck they minted 264,000 of them, that makes them Very Common, but there are so many collectors out there that the demand for that coin is great and thus they are valuable.
Value has all to do with supply and demand in coins.

 

[Colonial Zoyboy]

Re: Rare George Washington Halfpenny

This farm should yield at least 20 coppers when the four detect-o-teers are finally done with it!

 

[Nickel_Buff1935]

Re: Rare George Washington Halfpenny

Homey, dude, man!
(For you In Living Color fans )

Killer find

What an unusual coin!

Congrats and HH,

Nickel_B

 

[Nashoba]

Re: Rare George Washington Halfpenny (Update: Info from, Don in SJ)

DUDE! That's one heck of coin! I dont imagine I will be finding one on the west coast anytime soon.
Keep up the great work.
Can't stop shakin' my head when looking at that coin....SWEET DIG!

~Nash~

 

[River Rat]

Re: Rare George Washington Halfpenny (Update: Info from, Don in SJ)

Man, that's a super duper find, Dude!! WTG, Kirk!!

RR

 

[fiatboy]

Re: Rare George Washington Halfpenny (Update: Info from, Don in SJ)

Now that's what I call metal detecting! Way to go!

 

[fiatboy]

Re: Rare George Washington Halfpenny (Update: Info from, Don in SJ)

And your "dude" dialect cracks me up! hahaha.

 

[Colonial KirkPA]

Re: Rare George Washington Halfpenny (Update: Info from, Don in SJ)

And your "dude" dialect cracks me up! hahaha.

The "Dude" language is going through some evolution now. Hopefully, it will pass through the generations of Tnet. hahaha

8)