"Granularity" vs "Corrosion"???

[MikeKing]

How would you grade this 1811 half cent? Is this 'granularity'? or is it 'corroded' and why?

 

[chinook]

I would say corroded as it looks like the surfaces have been eaten into.

 

Granularity, to me, means raised bumps on the coin, like little sand grains.

[ldhair]

It seems to me that it is a little of both.

On the obverse it carries on into the word liberty making me think corrosion. The reverse looks more like Granularity. Just my thoughts.

[Wihlborg]

From the images, it looks like pot marks eaten into the surface of the coin to me, so I’d have to say corrosion. As Chinook said, if it were granularity the marks would be tiny raised bumps.

 

John

[michael]

a combo of both

 

it is struck on a spoiled granular poor crappy(sic) etc. planchet

 

and the post mint corrosion has eaten away all of the granularity and overall just leaves what it leaves ............it adds character

 

but with the sexy wonderful 1811 date, history and character of the coin it does not bother me at all

 

 

 

and overall one sweet coin

 

that all the design details can almost all be seen

and well if there was a perfect spoiled copper struck planchet and corrosion that looks great and has character

 

this be the coin

[EZ_E]

Yes, a slightly better date and always in demand as a type coin.

[Hoot]

What Michael said.

 

I agree that the planchets for these coins were horrible and led to many of them being corroded over time. Your coin has had the corrosion removed and has re-toned nicely. This is the way that most circulated Classic Head cents will look. Great coin with a great history.

 

Hoot

[James_OldeTowne]

This is such a difficult date to pick up nice. Your coin looks almost exactly like the one in my collection - grainy. It's just a reflection of the difficulties experienced by the early mint in obtaining unspoiled planchets.

 

James

[MikeKing]

Thank you everyone for your input and helping me to appreciate this coin in a more knowledgable way.

 

Michael