I became interested in early copper in the 80s and would pick up AG and/or rough coins for $5 or less. Used Penny Whimsey all the time to attribute them. Trying to do late dates using Newcomb was tough, but I never had a problem with Sheldon
Could I? I did. It was pretty much all there was unless you could find reprints of some of the old books from the early 20th century, and you had to have several different books. early American Cents and then the later edition Penny Whimsy were the go to guide until Robbie Brown's first collection was sold in 1986. Greatest auction catalog for large cents up to that time. Every Sheldon variety, almost half the NC's, every variety plated with descriptions of the diagnostics, and die stage information. It was a marvel. Only problem, halftone and actual size images. The Jack Robinson sale in 1989 was just about as good. Next was Breen's book on the early dates. Good descriptions, large images which could have been better, but the book is too big to carry around, and after ten years of editing it still lacks images of four dies because they accidentally duplicated pictures of other varieties. Now the "gold" standard is the Dan Holmes catalog. Every variety, all of the NC's, many die stages, in large high quality images. And it is also available online where you can enlarge the images even more. Its shortcoming? No diagnostics description of each variety. The ideal combination would be the Holmes images with the Robbie Brown diagnostics. I've actually been toying with the idea of creating that very thing for my own use. But I pretty much used Penny Whimsy from 1982 to 2000. I still think it is an excellent book if you get the right editions.
Can you point me to this online? I maintain a list of resources for variety attribution on my website and would like to add it.
Dan Holmes I Early dates 1793 - 1814 Every Sheldon variety and every NC variety (The 1793 NC-5 is shown but was not in the sale, it is unique and permanently impounded in the ANS collection.) http://images.goldbergauctions.com/php/toc_auc.php?site=1&lang=1&sale=54#toc Dan Holmes II Middle dates 1816 - 1839 Every variety except 1825 N-5 which wasn't rediscovered until after the collection was sold. (But the dies are there, Obv of N-4 rev of N-10) http://images.goldbergauctions.com/php/toc_auc.php?site=1&lang=1&sale=59#toc Dan Holmes IV Late Dates 1840 - 1857 every Newcomb variety except 1851 N-42. The coin is still unique and the owner wouldn't sell it. http://images.goldbergauctions.com/php/toc_auc.php?site=1&lang=1&sale=62#toc You might like this as well, the Missouri Cabinet, the finest collection of half cents, and the only complete set by variety ever assembled. http://images.goldbergauctions.com/php/toc_auc.php?site=1&lang=1&sale=77#toc
Thanks. I just added those to my list. I have been reducing the number of auction catalogs I have recently, and the Missouri Cabinet is one that I kept simply because I knew it would be a good half cent resource. I think I also have the Walter Husak large cent sale catalog still.
I do, as it's the only book I own on the early dates. I have multiple references on middle and late dates, but find PW is all I need for early.