A first for me! 1853 Half Cent!

teak · Apr 19, 2012

Been hitting a spot in Gloucester County VA, lots of flatties, civil war bullets, early military buttons, Indian Head pennies and then this sweet half cent!!!!

Wldbil · Apr 19, 2012

That is in great condition... One on my want to find list! Congrats

JohnnyMac · Apr 19, 2012

nice!!

West Jersey Detecting · Apr 19, 2012

Nice find. It seems like more Draped Busts and Classic Heads show up on the forum. Great condition too!

matt092079 · Apr 19, 2012

Sweeeet half cent. I found 2 large cents recently...maybe a half is in my near future.

VB Sanddigger · Apr 19, 2012

Good job marathon runner!!!!

teak · Apr 19, 2012

VB Sanddigger said:
Good job marathon runner!!!!

Lol! You're funny!!

jewelerguy · Apr 19, 2012

that is awesome. you just don't see many of the later half cents posted. congrats on a great find!

Guadalcanal · Apr 19, 2012

Wow! *Added to my wish list*

Great find, keep it up!
HH,
Guad

teak · Apr 20, 2012

matt092079 said:
Sweeeet half cent. I found 2 large cents recently...maybe a half is in my near future.

I also dug two large cents this past week, not in very good shape though....

2bits · Apr 20, 2012

Very nice find!
2bits

flyinryan2 · Apr 20, 2012

Congrats on the half cent, its in awesome shape!! 2012 seems to be a good year for everybody, all kinds of first finds!!!

Bill D. (VA) · Apr 20, 2012

teak said:
Been hitting a spot in Gloucester County VA, lots of flatties, civil war bullets, early military buttons, Indian Head pennies and then this sweet half cent!!!!

Nice find! Those little coppers are hard to come by. You and Ina have done well at that site. Keep hitting it hard.

Giant056 · Apr 20, 2012

Congrats on the half cent :thumbsup:

I've never found a U.S. half cent yet.

teak · Apr 20, 2012

2bits said:
Very nice find!
2bits

Thanks!!

teak · Apr 20, 2012

flyinryan2 said:
Congrats on the half cent, its in awesome shape!! 2012 seems to be a good year for everybody, all kinds of first finds!!!

I have been keeping track of my finds with which detector I am using, and I must say that I have been getting a lot of "firsts" with my AT Pro!!! I love that machine!!

teak · Apr 20, 2012

Bill D. (VA) said:
Nice find! Those little coppers are hard to come by. You and Ina have done well at that site. Keep hitting it hard.

Thanks Bill! I love that field!

dwayne sueno · Apr 20, 2012

don't think i've ever seen a half cent from later than the 1830's dug,
and with good reason. your 1853 is one of 129,694 minted for the year,
and that is one of the more prolific half cent mintings of the period.
it's twice as rare as a '16 D merc, and more than 6x as rare as an 1877
indian head penny, but alas, there's not as much of a demand for it.
great save, and hope you get some other good stuff from your site.

teak · Apr 20, 2012

dwayne sueno said:
don't think i've ever seen a half cent from later than the 1830's dug,
and with good reason. your 1853 is one of 129,694 minted for the year,
and that is one of the more prolific half cent mintings of the period.
it's twice as rare as a '16 D merc, and more than 6x as rare as an 1877
indian head penny, but alas, there's not as much of a demand for it.
great save, and hope you get some other good stuff from your site.

Sweet!! Thanks for the information!! : )

DCMatt · Apr 20, 2012

Very nice half cent. One of the best I've seen come out of the ground. Although I have not seen that many. I found a very toasty one about 3 years ago and we had a thread about why so few are found.

Apparently these coins were not well liked by the public. I believe they made them until 1857. Even in the early mid 1800's, a half cent was not much money and no one wanted to carry a pocket full of them.

By the 1850's the same could be said for the large or "common cent" as they were called back then. The small cent was wildly popular when first issued in the mid 1850's.

DCMatt