A little help with a Large Cent please

ajaan

I mainly post on the darkside but I recently received an 1801 Large Cent that has S-213 on the holder. I'm guessing this is a Sheldon (sp?) number. Am I correct? If so, is this a common variety? Thanks in advance.

Placid

Scarce, click the link for more.
Link

Spooly

Yes it's a Sheldon number.

213 wavy paralled cracks in front of the face.

213 is Scarce!

lordmarcovan

Yes, that would be a Sheldon number, Don.

Y'all should see this coin. He bought it from me, and I got it from mdwoods. It is a RB AU58, I would say, but the date was tooled for some reason. What a heartbreaker! The reverse is pristine, with lots of subdued red surviving. Even as a "problem" coin, it is impressive. The details, particularly in Liberty's hair, are razor-sharp. Don says it just came back from ANACS with AU details, but I haven't heard what the net grade was.

Did you pay ANACS for the variety attribution? If not, you got a nice "freebie". I don't think they usually do that for free.

ajaan

Thanks.

lordmarcovan

The illustration coin they use for the 1797 cent on that site has always blown my mind.

a2labmom

How can an average coin collector, like myself, determine the Sheldon number of a Large Cent?

Placid

Buy a book or go to the web site in the post above and see if they have info for the one you want.
If you have a good picture of the coin post it here and someone with a book might be able to tell you.

ajaan

Rob, I didn't pay for the attribution. How much would this variety, S-213, increase the value of the coin? if at all.

lordmarcovan

I don't really know, Don. You'd have to ask an EAC (Early American Coppers) member.

Sheldon only covered the earlier large cents in Penny Whimsy. Strangely enough, our local library has a copy.

Placid

I don't know of any price guide for them.
I personally use 10% more than common but most people don't have a clue what the numbers mean so I usually never have to pay a premium.

Conder101

I don't know when they started calling an R-3 coin scarce, they used to call it slightly uncommon and R-4 was scarce. In EAC grades above Fine it will command about a 50% premium over the most common variety. Below Fine there is no real premium.

LanLord

<< <i>How can an average coin collector, like myself, determine the Sheldon number of a Large Cent? >>

Mrs. 3labs, there is a book called "Penny Whimsey" that goes through all the very early date large cents (up to 1814). It's a great book for these attributes, but very dry reading. There is a similar book for later attributions called United States Coppers by Howard Newcomb (sp?). This is even dryer than the first. If ya love large cents they are great books.

Conder101

The descriptions in Penny Whimsy are dry reading but I find the first part of the book rather interesting. (If you are going to get one DO NOT get the 1990 reprint! The plates are lousy!. Personally I like the 1958 edition, then the 1965, then the 1981, then the 1976. The 1949 edition of Early American Cents is good too but the later Penny Whimsy is more up to date.) Probably even better would be Breen's book on the early large cents. The plates should be much better.

For the later dates DO NOT waste your money on a copy of Newcomb. For the Middle Dates John Wright's The Cent Book is much better, and for the Late Dates get a copy of Bob Grellman's book Varieties of US cents 1840 to 1857. I don't think I have the title right on that one. It is much easier to use than Newcomb and is much more up to date. A large number of varieties listed by Newcomb have turned out to be misattributed or different die states of other varieties. Also many varieties that were unknown to Newcomb have been added.

lordmarcovan

I'm pretty sure the one in our library is a '65 edition.