Today I was attempting to set up an excel document to help me better track my large cent collection. Essentially, I just wanted to be able to track what I have and what I need for each year by variety, while also noting the coins rarity. I'm currently focusing on just early dates, and I was using Penny Whimsy as my reference for both categories. The problem is, PW is not a current source for this information. Now I know I can pull a lot of information from major auction sites, but that would take a lot of time. I don't want to recreate the wheel, so I thought I would ask: what would be considered the most up to date reference on variety/rarity for large cents, and does anybody know of any webpages or programs I can reference that has this information in one easy to view location?
This is what I use for attributing: http://largecents.net/ Tom has his crap together! Ribbit Ps: I wood have said the "s' werd but Daddy Doug sez we can't use that werd but I noticed we can use crap, Daddy Doug said it. I remember when I first found out about that werd, when I wuz around 8 (physically, not mentally of course) and I remember how I used it in almost every third sentence, or so, until my mother had all she could take. But crap isn't a bad werd, iz it? It's not on the Cointalk Censor Log and Daddy Doug uses it too, so it must be usable but the "s" werd iz bad, so we can't use it, since the wrong combination of numbers will upset the equilibrium of the Universe, so too will be the case with letters, since werds are made up of individucal letters, just like numbers make up their Equations, and we just combine them for whatever we want to define mathematically but with werds we call it English, the other, Math, but most of you love English and hate Math, so it's no wonder most of you are the way you are and toss in Closed System Math, via Calculus, and we're really screwed, what with it's 100% Control Freak Mandate! @ Censorship, via George Carlin Logic and he wuz a Certified Genius.
I've always appreciated his website. Such a good resource! I would still like some solid info on rarity for each variety. It's not hard to find the info, it's just time consuming looking through past auctions and individual sites that don't always seem to agree.
This doesn't help your immediate question but I suggest Grellman's book U.S. Cents/1840-1857 for Braided Hair large cents. Copyright is 2001 (don't know of anything newer) and VERY comprehensive.
Go with the Dan Holmes sales on the Goldberg archives Only missing one variety, 1851 N-42 which is still unique. You can see every variety number and Rarity is stated on almost every one of them. And that collection has been sold since the last issue of CQR or Penny Prices came out so they would have the most up to date data that I know.
You should probably join EAC and get more information. I have grellmans book, but could never get comfortable with all those measurements - especially with worn coins.
Or use the Adam Mervis sale from Heritage for early dates. It just sold and has all the early date numbered Sheldons so it's recent. I believe Mark has access to the most recent census numbers. http://www.ha.com/c/search-results.zx?Ne=35&N=790+231+51+4294949183 There is no real database for these other than reading through these catalogs. Additionally, keep in mind the rarity numbers are estimates only and will change as time goes by. I find the census numbers to be very useful as well as it gives a sense of the general condition of surviving pieces. Two R4 varieties can have very different prices for the same grade. I only know of this information being available for early dates in the Noyes book, or in copper quotes by Robinson, although Penny Whimsy is still decent to get a relative sense.
Thank you all. Great information! mark_h ~ About three ago I filled out and sent in my paperwork for EAC. I haven't heard back yet, but I have some friends that are members, and I wanted join up and get involved. It will be great to be apart of a community with people that enjoy copper as much as I do.
