I've been wanting to add this one for a while, but every time that I saw one, they were really expensive. Just scored this one off of the bay for $50. Any other suggestions for earlier large cents, or is the Clapp book considered the standard.
Nice pickup. That Newcomb book is interesting reading. In regard to your question about early date books, Sheldon's Penny Whimsy is sort of the standard, albeit out of date for most things other than attribution. If you have a chunk of cash to spend (and a lot of free time to read) the Noyes and/or Breen books are where it's at for the early dates. It really just depends on what you're after: attribution, history, or census info.
Hi Kirk. That was a good find for 50 on ebay. I've searched for that and the Grellman book many times but never came up with any results. I always see them on other websites for $100+ though. I'm in the midst of trying to find something with good pictures to help me learn how to grade and attribute large cents. It seems like all the large cent books were made long enough ago that most of the photos in them are b&w. I just got Whitman/Bowers 'Encyclopedia of Colonial and Early American Coins' a wonderful book, fully discriptive with full color illustration, but it only covers colonials and coins up til right before the chain cent... annoying. I wish there was a real definitive fully illustrated color guide book for all large cents 1793-1857. Let us know how that book works out - if it's useful, or really difficult to use. Scott.
Ahh. Thanks, Sheldon totally slipped my mind for some reason. I'm not looking for any information in particular, just trying to rebuild my library again. I had dozens of old references lost in Katrina's waters and haven't taken the time to put it all back together. I picked up the Judd book last week and it got me going. Since I'm working on large cents at the moment, I decided that the Newcomb book should be on my list.
I'm sorry to hear that. I can only hope that was all you lost from Katrina. At least the books are replaceable. Off the top of my head, here are the books I would recommend for large cents: Early: Penny Whimsy - Sheldon Walter Breen's Encyclopedia of Early US Cents 1793-1814. United States Large Cents 1793-1814. W.C. Noyes Middle: The CENT Book 1816-1839 - J. Wright. United States Large Cents 1816-1839. W.C. Noyes Late: The Die Varieties of United States Large Cents 1840-1857. J.R. Grellman. United States Large Cents, 1816-1845, W.C. Noyes United States Large Cents, 1846-1857, W.C. Noyes These are not the only helpful books, but in my experience, they are the books most referenced when it comes to large cents. (I'm sure I'm missing one or two.)
Like everyone else around here I lost plenty. My house had fourteen feet of water in it, lost two rental properties and two cars. I was one of the lucky ones though, all of my friends and family were safe. Thanks for the tips, I'm watching Sheldon's Penny Whimsey on eBay now and am keeping an eye out for the Grellman varieties of braided hair cents.
If you want to put some work into putting it together, your best bet might be to create your own digital reference. The Breen early date book is available on line but the photos aren't good. Same comment for the Newcomb book. But if you take the text from those and combine them with the images available on line from the Dan Holmes sales you would have exactly the references you are looking for. I recommend the Holmes collection because it has really good images and his collection had all be three varieties, 1793 NC-5, 1825 N-5, and 1851 N-42. The 93 NC-5 is unique and in the ANS collection. But it IS pictured in the collection. the 25 N-5 was just recently rediscovered after the collection was broken up, but can be "reconstructed" because it has the obv of N-4 and the rev of N-10 which are both pictured. The 51 N-42 is unique and was in the collection of a collector who refused to sell it to Holmes to allow him to complete the set. So effectively images of ALL but one of the large cent varieties are available. Full color yes, but they all look like cleaned brass. The photos aren't bad, but the color rendition is horrible. Those circulated copper coins should be brown not yellow. And color images aren't always as good as B&W for seeing detail. For example the bust quarter book has some beautiful colorful images, but I find the toning often makes it hard to see the relationship details. A B&W image of a less toned coin would actually show the detail better.
@aubade21 mentioned this book above. It's for the middle dates. I had the Penny Whimsy but found it hard to follow. The CENT Book 1816-1839 - J. Wright. United States Large Cents 1816-1839. W.C. Noyes
I'd check with @CBJesse about any books you're looking for. I know they helped me locate a few harder to find books.
Thanks Tee. Now I have too many books to locate, but how can you not want Sheldon or Noyles references? Please send donations care of kirkuleez@cointalk.com.
I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of Penny Whimsey today. I believe I'm going to cross of the word penny with a magic marker and write cent above it when it gets here. So I'm waiting for cent whimsey to get here.
