Hello, If anybody collects large cents please post here how you are doing so far They are very beautiful and are not discussed much here as they should be Thanks
Most of my collecting energy has been focused on large cents for the past several years. Silver and gold have nothing on old copper in my opinion.
They are very beautiful, historic coins. Soft, pure copper, made from marginal stock. They suffered from the elements and from circulation. But they were workhorses for our young country's commerce. How can anyone not love old, large cents? Lance.
I'd liked large cents for a long time and I joined EAC in 1982. In 1985 I began to seriously collect the Draped bust coins because I really liked the design. I felt that there was no way I would be able to collect them by variety so I decided to just put together a date set. A few months later though a fellow collector came to me with a deal I couldn't turn down. He had been selling off his draped bust varieties and he had 20 pieces left that he would sell me at a great price. I bought them. Now between my partial date set, his twenty pieces and some other pieces I had, I now had close to 40 different Draped bust cent varieties and I was off on a draped bust variety set. Over the next four years, with the addition of a set of Classic head varieties and some of the Liberty caps I reached the 150 variety level (out of 355 total or 295 S numbered varieties) needed to get my set listed on the national census. At this point it started getting more difficult to find new pieces. Over the next ten years I managed to add another 70 varieties and twenty more over the next ten years. Since then I have added fourteen more varieties and currently have 254. On the national census I have moved up from #50 to #13. I have three of the four chain cent varieties, all of the mint issued 1795 S number varieties except S-79 which I consider a pattern. I have all of the 96 caps. I lack only three of the S numbered Draped bust varieties, and I have all of the classic heads. I have about thirty of the 1794's and that is about the only area where I have any chance at advancing. Maybe a couple more 93 wreaths. Along the way I also started doing some work on the middle dates. My 1817, 1819, 1820, 1825 are almost complete and my 1821, 1823, and 1829 are complete.
That sounds like a great collection, Conder. I thought I was doing good with almost 100 large cents. I rarely look for the varieties but rather stumble onto them after the fact. I still need to pick up some attribution books for the cents. Sometimes it takes me hours to find and compare pieces online which is my only reference right now. So I guess that brings me to a question....do you prefer Penny Whimsy or Breens, or another work? Guy
I learned with Penny Whimsy and it is a great book, but if you get one make sure you don't get the 1990 edition, the plates are horrible. most people like the 1976 edition but I tend to prefer the 1958 or 1965 editions. I find the Breen large cent book excellent as well. It is a little harder to find but it has a lot more background information, more die state information and large images. The quality of the images could be a little better and there are a few images in the wrong place but it is still really good. It also show ALL of the known die varieties including those discovered since Penny Whimsy came out in 1965. Down side is it is considerably larger than Penny Whimsy. PW is small enough it can be carried to shows, but the Breen book is really too large. A third book that is very good is William Noyes United States Large Cents 1793 - 1814. Excellent book (Much of the text is lifted directly from PW), large images with arrows pointing out the diagnostic points, all the varieties. Possibly useful for taking to shows. Down side if the images are of the same as his middle date book, then the images could have been better. EXPENSIVE. You can't buy just the early date book, it is only sold bundled with the middle date book as well at a cost of $240. Not bad if you want both but high if you only want the early book. If you could get just the early book it would be $140 and for that you could get both PW and the Breen book and still have money left over. I tend to use my own set of notes that I developed for identifying varieties in low grades (A lot of the diagnostics mentioned in the standard references are great if you are looking at a coin in Fine or better. When PW was written 1794 large cent in Fine were a dollar apiece. In low grade many of those diagnostics are gone.) I also use the Breen book, and for carrying at shows my favorites are the auction catalogs of Robbie Brown's first collection from 1986, or Jack Robinson's collection from 1989. These catalogs are great because they contain all the Sheldon numbered varieties and most of the NC's. Every lot is plated, and the diagnostics of each variety are listed in the description. Price is good too, about $20 to $30. Extra advantage, they also contain all the middle date varieties as well. They also have the late date varieties but they can't be identified using the catalog images. The Jack Robinson catalog has the additional advantage of including almost all of the half cent varieties as well! In most cases for the early and middle dates and in the case of Jack Robinson half cents, the descriptions also indicate what other varieties the obv and rev dies were used on. Helps on confirmations etc. I'm on my third copy of the Jack Robinson catalog now and it has been used so much it is now broken down into individual pages. Downside. They are getting harder to find since they are over twenty years old. The images are actual size, and they are high quality halftones, not the high quality images we are used to seeing in catalogs today. I have been disappointed in the catalog of every major large cent collection sold since the Jack Robinson sale. What would have really been a masterpiece would have been the Dan Holmes large cent collection coins and images, with the cataloging descriptions of the Robbie Brown and Jack Robinson sales. You know, that gives me an idea.
Wow, some very good information there on reference books for large cents.. I like both the large and half cents, I always seemed to pass them by as they are usually in rough shape. I didn't realize you could still make great discoveries based on all the varieties that were out there...
I would check out www.numislit.com for their auctions. They have these references pretty often. I have most Conder recommends and don't even actively collect large cents anymore! Older coin books are their own specialty, something that many here know I love. However, Conder's post is wonderful coming from an experienced collector on what references is most valuable to him. This is the advice which should be stickied or made "best of" posts. Large cents, older US coinage, and Colonial's should all be collected more like ancient coins than US coins. By that I mean references and knowledge are more important than it is collecting other US series. In collecting, knowledge means both money, but more importantly, increased enjoyment. Chris
Here is a nice little collection by one member. Plus look for posts by Marshall. I am working on a large cent album - I need 4 toughies, 2 semi-toughie expensive coins, and about 4 common varieties(just have not found the right coin, but could buy them at almost any time). I should have clarified my post in the other thread linked in here. I basically have a date set minus the 1799 and 1804. But I still want to add to the album 1793 chain, 1793 Liberty cap and then the 1799 and 1804. The others I am not to worried about - plus I have one upgrade to go. I was working a middle date graded set, but will probably let them go to complete the album.
http://www.cointalk.com/t176174/ a basic thread i made for large cents. ive been collecting about 3 years but ill never come close to some of the pieces ive seen. in any case large cents is where its at when it comes to numismatics for me.
I collect Ancient, U.S, German and Latin American coinage. So I spread my collecting passion into many different areas. However, when it comes to US coinage, Large Cents, specially the early dates (as well as early date Half cent and Colonials) are my favorite. I tend to look for them at every show I go here in Germany. And every now and then I get lucky, and find one. Then the fun really starts - specifically attributing the coin - sometimes you have very nice surprises like the time I found a rare variety of 1796 Draped Bust cent found (R-5) in nice condition. My collection of large cents is still modest, but I do have a chain, a few wreaths, several 94's, 95's, 96's (my favorites), 97's and the 1804. I am still missing the 1793 liberty cap (once missed a great opportunity to pick one up in good condition at a very decent price in London), and am also missing the 1799. The hunt continues!
