Does anyone know anything about the organization, Early American Coppers? What would I get for the $39.00 annual dues?
They have a completely different grading structure for earlier cents - and it is much stricter and I like it. Too bad the TPG's don't climb on that bandwagon.
Maybe or maybe not - if you coin is natural with no issues there is always the possibility the EAC grade matches you grade. From everything I read if you are going to collect large cents by variety then this is what you would want to join. The are several EAC members on the forum.
A lot of them do have minor (I like to think) issues, and I only collect by year, not variety. Maybe someday I will, but that takes some money, I suppose. Maybe you won't mind if I post a picture of my oldest.
All of the big EAC dealers that I know don't have many slabbed coins. Chris McCawley Butternut Tom Reynolds Not quite sure why.
I usually stay away from slabbed coins, because they cost more (don't they?), and all I'm trying to do is fill the empty slots in my collection (with G4 and better coins).
If you want to learn about early copper this is the organization for you. EAC membership includes the publication "Penny-Wise" New members receive past issues on a searchable CD-Rom. You will find that EAC offers members discounts on the necessary reference books. Members are also eligible to participate in their on-line community known as Region 8. I heartily recommend joining.
There are a radical some out there, myself included, who really collect coins - not plastic. Plastic doesn't really do anything for a purist collector, it is more a thing for the unknowing and the investor types.
I am a member of EAC, it was the best collecting money I have spent by far. For the dues you get 4 issues of PennyWise per year, plus a DVD rom with every previous issue published. The magazine is simply amazing if you are interested in Large cents or Half cents. In addition there is a yearly convention open to EAC members with a members only auction. Lastly, there are numerous member generated collection lists for each of the main date runs, 1793-1814, 1816-1839, and 1840 to 1856 as well as some truly amazing and useful census lists, my favorite being the late date cud census. I collect late date cuds, and this census is a comprehensive list of every late date cud known to active members of the community or sold at auction. It gives as complete a picture of the series as is possible in my mind. Like I said, it's the best money I have ever spent, the group is really focused on collecting, sharing, teaching, and enjoying the coins with fellow like-minded people.
What beef said. If you are really interested in early copper, EAC is one membership you need to have.
I like to show my coins off. On the other hand that's advertising that I collect and have valuable items. So, to meet both the "showoff" and the "security" issues I had to find a compromise. That turned out to be NGC Registry Sets; I've got 11 or 12. Now I can splash images all over the place knowing the coins can't be gotten to.
You can show stuff off without registry sets. Frankly I don't have one, nor do I care to. I have some coins like my 1795 lettered edge in AU that are in plastic - but I bought them that way and that way they will stay. Other coins, notably my Scots dosh, they all hae been creaked out - free'n Annie me says. But my Scots are slithering into an abyss of mine many SDB's where enigmatic shall have taken over whilst I thin off the sundry hoards of other stuff like USA stuff.
These can be very interesting, of course I'm biased about that since I'm the publisher of the early date census 1793 - 1814.
