Just a fairly typical low-grade "Baby Bustie", from the first year of issue for this, the Capped Bust type. I once found an 1829 like this (except holed) while metal detecting the site of an old meeting house in the mountains of North Carolina. It was shockingly shallow in the ground (which seems to be the case with many buried half dimes, maybe since they were too small and lightweight to sink very deeply into the soil). My detector sounded off with a "pulltab" range signal at half an inch deep, and since the target was so shallow, that's what I expected to find. Instead, an 1829 half dime popped out of the grassroots, and I was stunned. But I digress. This is not a dug example- not by me, anyway. It merely looks like the one I found (only without a hole). Anybody know the Logan-McCloskey variety?
Some of the diagnostics are gone but this looks to me like the LM-3, an R-2 coin. Obverse is 3, Reverse is C. What I could see to attribute is below. Reverse Diag: Scroll begins under right edge of serif of T. Scroll ends under left edge of of left upright of M. D low and below E1 at base. T3 high at base. Obverse Diag: Right base of 1 close to 8. Upper loop of 8 close to 2. Neck of 2 not curved. Dentil centered below left edge of upright of 1. Left serif of 2 points to space between dentils. S1 and S7 three times closer to dentils. S8 and S13 twice as close to dentils. This is one of the "three pale gules" varieties but the shield is too worn to tell for sure. Nevertheless, the gules appear to be a little wider than the "two pale gules" variety which argues for the 3-gule variety. Interesting how the obverse is so much better preserved than the reverse.
I know what you mean. I collect the CBHDs by die marriage and I see them best for attribution purposes from photographs. I have a friend who's a Bust Half Nut and when I show him a CBHD in a slab he says "Is there anything inside that plastic?"
Although I have cut way back on my U.S. coin purchases, I would like to find a really nice 1829 half dime. From what I have read, although the date for the move from the first U.S. Philadelphia Mint to the second one was officially January 1, 1833, there was some of business conducted in the second one prior to that. True or not, one of those "second mint products" was said to be some Proof 1829 half dimes. I have seen a couple of these Proof pieces in the major auctions, but the prices have been just south of $20,000 which is more than I want to spend. I have a damaged example my aunt gave me many years ago. I'll have to photograph it and post it some time.
Yea, this comment has really cut down on the demand for half dimes and gold dollars. If you have a nice enough magnifying glass, you might appreciate the incredible detail on something like this. Imagine creating the artwork for a coin with a diameter of 16.5 mm in the days before they had reducing machines that reduced the size of the artists' models.
I'm normally in the ancients section but I collected half dimes for many years. I think I have most of the major varieties of bust half dime types (large, small date and 5C) but really haven't looked at them in years. Anyways, here's my 1829 which ran me a whopping $14 in 1987.
