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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;beef1020, post: 2446355, member: 24544&quot;]Welcome to the club, now open your wallet!!!&nbsp; I was in a similar situation regarding large cents and gravitated towards the late dates for the same reasons.&nbsp; I found them quite affordable and depending on how much you get into varieties and die states, it can be a very large and fascinating area to specialize in.&nbsp; I would encourage you to join EAC, and once you find an area you like contact the folks at EAC to find the different sup-groups.&nbsp; I know there is a very active late date census/die state group of collectors who love to talk copper, PM me if you are gonig that route and I can provide more details.</p><p><br /></p><p>To your last question on cleaning, bear with me on the longish answer.&nbsp; This applies to non-mint state coins.&nbsp; As with all coins, when the copper is struck the entire coin has luster covering the surface.&nbsp; As the coin wears, the high points lose their luster, while the protected areas of the coin maintain the luster.&nbsp; So on a late date, the area inbetween/around the letters of LIBTERTY in particular keep their mint luster, while the top of the letters and the highest edge of the coronet/ear/check wear first.&nbsp; This worn area will develop a patina that looks much different than the patina in the protected areas of the coin.&nbsp; For original coins, you end up with a very nice two tone patina where the worn areas of the coin look different than the protected areas of the coin.&nbsp; In comparison, on cleaned and retoned coins, the wear and protected areas both have the same patina, because the coin was stripped and then the entire coin retoned at the same speed.&nbsp; Now, this isn&#039;t a hard and fast rule, but it&#039;s a generally good guideline, and once you see the toning pattern it&#039;s very hard to miss.&nbsp; It&#039;s much easier to see this with the coin in hand, the difference in patina is clear and obvious while on a cleaned coin the patina looks flat.</p><p><br /></p><p>Try this one, it&#039;s a higher grade xf45, but you can see a slightly different look to the patina on the edge of the coronet and the letters:</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="http://early-copper.com/coinpics/51N8.jpg" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://early-copper.com/coinpics/51N8.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://early-copper.com/coinpics/51N8.jpg</a></p><p><br /></p><p>Here is another one:</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="http://early-copper.com/coinpics/51N40(2).jpg" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://early-copper.com/coinpics/51N40(2).jpg" rel="nofollow">http://early-copper.com/coinpics/51N40(2).jpg</a></p><p><br /></p><p>Compare to a cleaned/retoned coin:</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="http://early-copper.com/coinpics/47N1.jpg" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://early-copper.com/coinpics/47N1.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://early-copper.com/coinpics/47N1.jpg</a>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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