Half Cents
 

I recently started collecting half cents and I must say I consider them beautiful and fascinating. Does anyone else here enjoy collecting these coins? Also, it seems to me that half cents are undervalued when you compare their current prices to their relatively low mintages. For example an 1832 half cent has a mintage of only 51,000, making it much scarcer than a 1909s-vdb lincoln cent, yet it regularly trades on Ebay for $50 or less in Fine condition! Does anyone here think this may change in the near future and that half cent values will begin to drastically increase? I know these coins I'm discussing are not made of gold or silver but they are interesting.

Re: Half Cents
 

Re: Half Cents
 

Not a US half Penny, but I do have one...

Looks kinda like this:
http://www.treasurerealm.com/coinpap.../S3954__0B.jpg

http://www.treasurerealm.com/coinpap.../S3954__01.jpg

Except mine says Half Penny and the date, its a year off, mine is a 1893...

Looking at my ""Official Numismatic Grading Standards" by Whittman
the Bust/Face side looks like it would grade somewhere between VG-8 and F-12, the other side looks like it would grade maybe EF-40 at best...

I was told on another site it wasn't worth anything and it is a a very common coin....

Ok, but I still think its kinda cool... Well really any coin still around and readable from the 1800s is pretty d@mn cool to me.....

Re: Half Cents
 

That British Penny is a cool coin. Looking at early large copper coins reminds us that there was a time in this world when one cent and even half of a cent actually had some purchasing power. Does anyone know how much of something a cent or half-cent would purchase two hundred years ago?

Re: Half Cents
 

a 4 pound loaf of bread cost anywhere from 10 to 15 pennies about 200 years ago, according to Mayhew's Sterling, The History of a Currency.

Meat cost 8d. (8 pence) per pound. Doesn't say what kind of meat.

There was a major inflation during the war between France and Britain and it caused prices to go way up. Fortunately the Bank of England had been formed in 1694 and there were plenty of ways to inflate the currency.

During the early part of the history of Sterling, pennies were it. There were units smaller but not larger than a penny. And the penny was silver, not copper.

Re: Half Cents
 

I've got a couple of half cents. I love the Classic Head design by John Reich. It carried much longer than the Large cent, continuing until 1836. Reich also designed the beautiful later Bust half dollar series, from 1807-1839. I will post my 1809 half cent pic when I find it.

Old coins are treasures, no matter where they're from.

Re: Half Cents
 

When I was a kid my small brother ( who collected coins ) spent his weekly earnings $12 - $20 ( I don't recall what he made working in a delli ) on a mint looking half cent. The only reason I remember this, is my Father laughed it up big time, that all he had to show for the week of work was a half cent.

BTW....he still has it!

Re: Half Cents
 

Here is my favorite design; The Draped Bust Half Cent (1800-1808)

http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l2.../halfcents.jpg

Re: Half Cents
 

The Great Ag is right...supply and demand. If the demand goes up the value will go up.

Maybe buy a bunch of them up then write and publish articles geared to stir up a lot of interest and hopefully demand. Wouldn't be the millionth time something like this was done...successfully.