Bucket of Coins

Every once in a while you will have a coin in your coin collection that really doesn’t “click” or has something distracting to it. I had one such coin that I had in my collection that was a little distracting to me.  It was my 1837 Reeded Edge 50 Cent piece.

My original one was persevered in an ANACS holder and was graded as AU58. I purchased this coin for $400 at a local coin show. It still had mint luster on the obverse with nice details that cartwheeled when you moved your hand like a nice Morgan does. It was a very nice piece with some really interesting die cracks. One on the reverse ran from the “A” in STATES through the beak of the eagle making a U shape over to the “E” in AMERICA. It almost appeared to be a cracked planchet, but it was definitely a die crack. On the Obverse, a 1/4 moon die crack ran from the Bust up through the cheek right in front of the first left sideburn curl then continued through the “R” and “T” in LIBERTY over to Star # 8. The 7 in 1837 looked repunched to me. The coin had a lot of character and was very appealing with nice details over all. My biggest issue with it was the reverse has dark gunk around some of the devices like the “E” in America, in the horizontal lines of the shield and around the beak. See below.

I ended up trading this coin off to friend of mine at a local coin club in which I am a member, for  a few other coins I’d rather have. Thus beginning my search for a nice example of a 1937 Reeded Edge 50 Cent piece to fill my newly acquired “hole” in my Dansco 7070. After several months patiently waiting, I found a replacement!  I really liked the sharpness of the details of the hair and of the clasp. I found the toning very appealing. I feel the coin is a much cleaner and better struck example of an AU58 coin, when comparing it to my original one.  Granted it cost about $100 more than my original but I think it is definitely better quality and would make the grade with NGC or PCGS, where as the first coin would not. Here is the new coin: