Large Cent Book

jhar · March 28, 2007 11:40AM

Can someone recommend a good book on this series??

1798CentCollector · March 28, 2007 2:51PM

Sheldon's Penny Whimsy (except the 1990 Durst reprint)- good reading but descriptions cover earlyy dates (Sheldon numbers); Walter Breen's Encylopedia of Early United States Cents 1793-1814, for the early dates. The Cent Book by John Wright for the middle dates. Bill Noyes published two large cent books - U.S. Large Cents 1793-1814 and 1816-1839. Bob Grellman published an attribution giude for the late dates 1840-1857. Primary space in all the works is devoted to variety description and attributions.

pb2y · March 28, 2007 3:09PM

Howard R. Newcomb United States Copper Cents 1816-1857 copyright 1944.
All others are either incomplete or "Johnie come latelies"

acsb · March 28, 2007 5:15PM

What am I missing with the 1990 Durst version of Sheldon?

Hoot · March 28, 2007 5:36PM

1798centcollector recommended some great books. The most entertaining of those are the Sheldon and Breen texts. The others are good attribution guides and good for their respective date ranges. Wright is very friendly, well written, and has some nice illustration; Noyes' texts cannot be beat for attribution; Grellman is excellent but hard to use. Noyes has a new text on the condition census of 1793-94 cents entitled United states Large Cents 793-1794. It's quite a beautiful book but specific enough to be a more advanced text. The Rasmussen catalog and the Reiver catalogs fromheritage are excellent and have some good photos to supplement the above texts, as well as some great descriptive information. Likewise, The Jack Robinson catalog from Superior (1989) is a great "book" and excellent companion for Grellman. This can also be said for the Robinson Brown catalog from Superior (1986). Tons of fun to be had in this area of reading and study. BTW, Newcomb's text was mentioned, and although it's historically fascinating, it's arduous to use and tough to read (hand-written), and has also been superceded by the Wright and Grellman texts. Lastly, Dave Bowers wrote a great book on half cents: United States Half Cents 1793-1857 - a fun read - while Manley's text Half Cent Die States 1793-1857 is quite a worthy attribution guide.

Hoot

RTS · March 29, 2007 1:41AM

...please note this is a work in progress, incompleteness reigns and begs editing...one of my favorite books is missing- Wright's Cent Book...

Longacre · March 29, 2007 1:49AM

Am I the only one who gets whipped up into a frenzy every time they see RTS's copper library?

Cladiator · March 29, 2007 1:52AM

<< <i>Can someone recommend a good book on this series?? >>

Try this thread. Link-a-fication

Hoot · March 29, 2007 3:32AM

<< <i>Am I the only one who gets whipped up into a frenzy every time they see RTS's copper library? >>

Not the only one!

Hoot

sumnom · March 29, 2007 4:38AM

Nope, not the only one.

1798CentCollector · March 29, 2007 7:07AM

What a wonderful presentation RTS - would make a great exhibit at EAC some day !! Catalogs centered around major copper holdings provide some of the most interesting and useful information on this sport to be found.. During the 70s to late 90s may of these collections were cataloged by the great names of copper. The 1986 Robinson S. Brown sale catalog was IMHO the greatest copper catalog ever produced. All the Sheldon and Newcomb varieties were represented and every coin was plated in the text. Great descriptions and meticulous attention to die state characteristics set a new standard in cataloging. The deluxe edition featured additional photographic plates with every coin in the sale pictured. The New Netherland sale of Roy Naftzger's duplicates in 1973 is one of my favorites. Naftzger had previously purchased Sheldon's collection. the Ruby I sale in 1974, Philip Van Cleave in 1986, Jack Robinson in 1989, G. Lee Kuntz in 1991, the second Robinson Brown sale in 1996, J.R. Frankenfied in 2001. Wally Lee in 2003 - I can't forget to mention this sale featured Doug Smith's 1798s

, Superior's Pre-Long Beach sale in September 2004, Wes Rasmussen early and middle dates in 2005, and the Jules Riever sale in 2006, are all landmark references. .

Edited to add : BTW In addition to your suggestions for viewing the Evan Kolpald catalog, I would suggest a jello shooter and a good cigar to follow

Barndog · March 29, 2007 7:35AM

RTS -- your usual fabulous presentation, thank you!

Writersblock · March 29, 2007 11:44PM

<< <i>What am I missing with the 1990 Durst version of Sheldon? >>

Sheldon's book has come with several different printings since the original publishing in 1958. (The 58 book was a revision of the 1949 origianl Early American Cents.) It was reprinted in 1965 (two versions), 1976, 1981, and 1990 (two printings, different covers) The text was slightly revised in the 1965 printing but other than that there was no change until the 1990 edition which has a new forward by Denis Loring and the addition of plates in the back of all of the varieties discovered since the book came out in 1958.

The real difference between these editions has been the quality of the plates in the back of the book. Some think the 1976 has the best plate, personally I prefer the 1958 or 65 plates. But universally the plates in the 1990 are soundly condemned. They are seriously underexposed and a great many of them are completely unusable, little more than black circles. This is especially true of the new variety plates. Almost all of them are 2 1/2 inch diameter black circles. The ONLY people who like the 1990 book are new collectors who have never had a chance to see one of the earlier editions, and as soon as they do they start looking for one of the older books.

<< <i>Howard R. Newcomb United States Copper Cents 1816-1857 copyright 1944.
All others are either incomplete or "Johnie come latelies" >>

Pb2y, you must be joking right? Newcomb is difficult to use, practically impossible for the late dates, contains a great many errors resulting in many varietes of late dates that have had to be delisted, and there are many new discoveries that aren't in Newcomb but are in the easier to use Wright and Grellman books. Those may be "Johnie come lately" books, but they are also "Johnie is better!" books too.

Large Cent Book

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