Book review--"US Copper Coins: An Action Guide for the Collector and Investor", by Q. Davi

Longacre

On my recent airline flight, I read US Copper Coins: An Action Guide for the Collector and Investor by Q. David Bowers. The book is a rather quick read. It is about 170 pages, and published in 1984. The book is broken up into several chapters: 1. Introduction, 2. Collecting Half Cents, 3. Collecting Large Cents, 4. A Portfolio of the Past, 5. Counterstamped Large Cents, 6. Collecting Small Cents, and 6. Collecting Two Cent Pieces. Each of the chapters on the actual coins gives a fairly detailed analysis of the different coin types within that category. For example, for the half cents chapter, the subchapters are broken out between Liberty Cap Half Cents, Draped Bust Half Cents, Classic Head Half cents, etc. For particular dates and designs, Bowers gives a good analysis of whether the planchets used are usually good, rather rough, or with other characteristics. Interestingly, he also gives the history behind why certain coins are usually seen with good planchets, and why others are usually seen with rather poor planchets. Although he does not give a linear date by date analysis, he does give enough information about the dates in each series so you get a good flavor for the issues. I don't know much about early copper coins, so for me the information in the book was a good start in getting more grounded in the series.

As always, Bowers provides some nice stories about his personal collecting experience. One of the more interesting stories was when, in the early 1950's, Bowers saw an advertisement for a 1796 half cent in EF for $300 from a well known dealer. Bowers thought the coin was really worth $1000, so he mailed payment. When the coin arrived, it was a struck copy made by Dr. Edwards. Bowers sent the piece back with a very long and helpful letter to the dealer explaining what the piece really was. In response, Bowers received a letter that said, "you didn't expect an ORIGINAL piece for $300, did you?"

In the large cent section, he gives some interesting personal and historical background on Dr. Sheldon and Sheldon's early years looking at large cents with his father. It adds a nice flavor to the book, and sets a nice backdrop as Bowers describes how "on special occasions" Sheldon's father would take out an old box of coins and as a family project, they would try to analyze the coins. It is stories like this that you cannot find in a cold, lifeless Redbook.

In the Profiles of the Past chapter, Bowers provides copies of old articles, letters, and pages from auction catalogs. There are also some price lists from yesteryear, which are pretty interesting to look at. I particularly liked the chapter on counterstamped large cents, and it provided many pictures of these interesting issues.

Overall the book is great and a good primer for anyone with even a remote interest in large cents and other copper issues. I bought the book used on Amazon for about $10. I give this book 4 out of a possible 5 stars.

lordmarcovan

I should read more QDB. Until I recently (finally!) got my hands on a copy of American Coin Hoards and Treasures, I hadn't read too much of his work.

carl

I'm impressed. Most times we get coin show reviews but here is a complete book report on a coin book. However, now there is lots of similar books out there on coins such as coppercoins book on Lincolns, edition 1 or 2. At one coin show recently one dealer had an entire table of books on coins. Some looked like the world book they were so big and probably wieghed to much to carry around. kThe thing that really messes up books is this computer thing with access to the internet one can find out anything they want nowadays.

TommyType

"you didn't expect an ORIGINAL piece for $300, did you?"

Isn't this the eBay motto?