For Indian Head cents I'd recommend "A Guide Book of Flying Eagle and Indian Head Cents" by Richard Snow. A Whitman Publishing book, this one will get you started right. For Large Cents, look to the Early American Coppers (eac.org) group, the club publication "Penny-Wise" is mailed to members only and is one of the best resources available. New members receive back issues on CD. Read and study both series first, you'll be glad you did.
a good price on an Indian probably means something is wrong with it. You can ALWAYS find a problem Indian (cleaned, scratched, etc) at a bargain.
The best tip I can think of, assuming we're talking well-circulated cents, is to go for surface condition. This is especially true of large cents, which are often pitted and corroded. Moving up to less circulated cents, avoid ugly spotting. Bag hits are much more acceptable than carbon spotting, splotchy toning or verdigris/PVC. Lance.
As mentioned get books on the series. I like the red book on IHC's by rick snow. For large cents I have newcomb, sheldon Penny Whimsy and Grellman - and there are several others that are good. For IHC go to Rick Snows web page and read up(get his grading guide in pdf format) and watch his video's. For large cents you might also want to join EAC. Those will all help in the long run. There are several dealers I can recommend for both IHC's and large cents For IHC - what are you going to do - album, graded, etc.? I would say stick to problem free coins. The toughest ones will be the 1877 and 1909-s - there are several semi-keys that will also run into some money. So study up on those and get a feel for prices. For these I also say - buy the best you can afford. At if you want MS grades - go check heritage I have a few nice ones in the long beach auction. I decided to sell mine and concentrate on my bust halves and large cents. Now for large cents those are completely different. I actually like most of these in the VF range over ms coins, but some of the AU's are beauties. What are you going to collect - an album? A date set? early dates, middle dates or late dates? Or a variety set? Doing an album can be extremely expensive with the 3 1793's, 1799 and 1804 - not to mention coins like the 1834 N-5 and 1839/6. You can always fill the holes with different varieties - but I want to fill them with what is expected. I recommend looking for the most problem free and best you can afford. Me - I like solid planchets, versus corroded with more details. If you going to collect by variety then you may have to just settle for what you can find for some varieties. I would recommend if doing an album - start with the middle dates and try to find them in f-vf(pick your grade) since that is my favorite range. Don't be shy about buying some graded examples and cracking them out. I would not worry about the 1834 n-5 or 1839/6 - if you want them then get them. Now for the middle dates the 1823 can be a toughie. I like middle dates - plenty of varieties just in the album. Then go for the braided hair - the 1857 large and small date are toughies, as is the 1840/18. Again these in VF relatively problem free coins can be found. The darn 1855 n-10 was tough for me to find in a coin I like - then again if you can make some coin shows I am sure you can find them all. Now the classic heads I would do in ag to g - you get to F and VF problem free coins and they get expensive. I have found that lower grade problem free coins are more available than the higher grades. Now for the 1793's, 1799 and 1804 - get the best you can afford - end of story. For the liberty caps I like them in ag to g as problem free as possible. Not exactly cheap, but nice problem free examples are available. Next for the draped bust cents go for ag to g and maybe even a few fine coins. Again lower grade relatively problem free coins can be had and are available. Lance has a really nice set and so does mike(here is his Large cents. Here is the one page of my album:
