Collection Highlights - 1858-O Half Dollar
Met back up with a friend who I bought coins from in the past. The last time we were together he had a couple of different selections for me to look through and I'd actually pick these out time before and we just waited a month to complete the deal so I could acquire some Fiat to give to him. Overall I'm pretty happy with the coins that I got and I will start with the oldest and I will work my way to the newest. I have a 18 58 and 1877, and 1880, and finally a 1925 so today I will focus on the 1858-O half dollar
When taking a look at this coin and using the PCGS photo grade tool I think this would grade out somewhere in the very good range potentially. I think while the obverse is certainly worn heavily, there is a fair amount of detail that comes through in the reverse and overall it's in great shape.
Using their website it also says that there were 7,294,000 minted which is honestly more than I thought might be minted. Like all the honest money from the day they were 90% silver and had beautiful designs on the obverse and the reverse
My friend has always given me very fair prices and I think I got this one for below market. I got this one for $50 which was probably a fair price four to five months ago or a little earlier when he may have originally priced it out, but it seems as if recently these have gone up on the online auctions and I may have gotten a bit of a steal.
PCGS 1858-O Details
PCG Photograde
Obverse
Unfortunately most the detail is missing and the true beauty of this coin has been lost to its function. The Shield which you can just make out in the lower left that she's holding on to is an impressive shield with the word Liberty running down the banner. There's also a lot of detail in her face and hair that's missing as well as the Stars themselves. You can even see how much the rated edge has worn down over time. I really like the seated and bust coins so I was very excited to pick this one up.
Reverse
I think the reverse is the star of this coin. While again much of the detail has been worn away from use, and is nowhere near as magnificent as the mint State versions you can find on pcgs, it still carries a tremendous amount of detail through. I am very excited to see that the shield has almost a complete lines all the way through and that some of the feathers are still recognizable. Well clearly much of the detail has been lost I think that the patina and the look of the eagle with the dark area behind the vertical lines on the breast Shield is perfect.
I don't have too many of seated or bust coins and this is going to be an excellent addition for me. I'm most likely to be putting this in my dansko book in the very near future, I'll just have to double check my collection and make sure I didn't actually have one of these before as when I buy coins I tend to buy off of site and not off any list. Well not a true coin collector, I'm more of a visual collector and if I like a coin it doesn't bother me to have multiple of the same years.
I hope you like this, I was quite happy to acquire it and I'm looking forward to showing you the rest of what I got.
