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 \pm 0.3 ) and 0.3-7.0 keV ( \Gamma = 2.7 \pm 0.2 ) spectra .
The measured intrinsic neutral X-ray column density is approximately 7 \cdot 10 ^ { 20 } cm ^ { -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 } \geq 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 .