  We present X-ray and optical observations of the X-ray bright AGN 1ES
1927+654. The X-ray observations obtained with ROSAT and Chandra reveal
persistent, rapid and large scale variations, as well as steep 0.1-2.4 keV
(Gamma = 2.6 +/- 0.3) and 0.3-7.0 keV (Gamma = 2.7 +/- 0.2) spectra. The
measured intrinsic neutral X-ray column density is approximately 7e20cm^-2. The
X-ray timing properties indicate that the strong variations originate from a
region, a few hundred light seconds from the central black hole, typical for
type 1 AGN. High quality optical spectroscopy reveals a typical Seyfert 2
spectrum with some host galaxy contamination and no evidence of Fe II
multiplets or broad hydrogen Balmer wings. The intrinsic optical extinction
derived from the BLR and NLR are A_V >= 3.7 and A_V=1.7, respectively. The
X-ray observations give an A_V value of less than 0.58, in contrast to the
optical extinction values. We discuss several ideas to explain this apparent
difference in classification including partial covering, an underluminous BLR
or a high dust to gas ratio.
