1808 and 1808/7 are two empty slots in my Capped Bust Half collection that I've found very hard to fill. Not due to any paucity of these coins, rather, the difficulty in finding really nice ones.

For example, I had an 1808 NGC 58 that was quite superb in many ways, but it had been dipped, and retoned peripherally, in a way I found very 'artificial'. I don't mean AT (artificial toning), but the coin just didn't have 'the look' that I'm interested in, so I sold it. Yes, at a loss! I just had to do that.

I haven't found a good replacement since (all the good ones seem to get away from me).

Similarly for 1808/7, though, I never had one.

Restricted by finances right now and having to sell coins to buy coins, I wondered what I was going to do when Sheridan Downey had his next sale/auction. I KNEW there would be several coins that I'd both need and want and just couldn't find elsewhere, and maybe, just maybe, he'd have a great 1808/7.

Yes he did!

Just recently, he purchased Palmer's Red Book collection of Capped Bust Halves and put them up for sale. The 1808/7 was too good to be true. The price I paid for it was too much to be true also. . But you get what you pay for (sometimes), and here, certainly, I feel it was well worth it.

Probably, though not definitely dipped at some time in it's life, toning that in hand is rather gorgeous with pearlescent grey centrally and some golden browns and blues peripherally, that just spell 'natural'. The die flow lines are strong, and the cartwheeling is inclusive of the fields entirely, which is not often the case, even in lower MS grades. Indeed, this coin never saw circulation, though it's graded an AU58.

So, I'm real happy, and the 1808 can wait until my finances improve, and....having that overdate is quite a thrill.