Large Cent Purchase - 1797 NC-5

While I may have complained a little, this is my purchase from the Heritage Auction. I have now joined the elite club of those who own an NC and also an R6. Of course, it also blends in well with my love for the unwanted and unfit coins with it's two holes.

And the auction just happened to fall on my birthday.

 

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Gosh, its in such rough condition, and I can hardly read the date. Its a historic piece, but I wouldn't buy it with the holes. Its bad how worn it is, and holes just make it worse. As long a you like it, thats all that matters.

 

You and many like you feel that way. I thank you because I couldn't afford it if you didn't. I'll just settle for having one of the two dozen known examples, even if it is the worst of the bunch.

Of course it fits in well with my S-142:

 

Id prefer to have a higher grade, more common coin and not tampered with then having a tampered, very low grade rare coin, but thats just my opinion.

 

or my S-86...

 

Happy Birthday!
-L

 

And a great opinion, particularly for investment. I'm just thankful for the crumbs.

 

outstanding everybody should be so lucky to get what they like on their birthday. congrats :thumb:

 

You do realize this is an NC coin right? While I do not know the consensus of this variety there may not be one in better shape available or even one available for years. If you collect LC varieties you may not have a choice on what grade you get it in.

Good pickup Marshall. Love it.

 

I think that is a great coin. Who cares it has a hole? It is so much cheaper!

 

I agree with you Marshall. Nice problem free higher grade coin is a better choice for investment.

Your coin is one only a true numismatist can love. I think that speaks volumes as to why you collect coins, and how much you study and appreciate them.

Great pickup.

 

Great coin Marshall!!! I have a few like that as well, although no 97 NC5!

This is the fundamental difference between variety collectors and non-variety collectors. For people who collect varieties, be it large cents, bust halves, fugios, or whatever, you take what you can get. There are probably around 20 of these known and I would guess at least half of those, if not more, are problem coins. Even a 'clean' AG3 of that variety will set you back a couple thousand. As long as you understand that your preference for 'nicer' coins will basically keep you out of an entire segment of the coin collecting world.

Personally, I would get bored real quick collecting mint state Morgans, I much prefer the subtlety, hunt, and breadth of variety collecting. But if you collect varieties you have to be willing to except two things. First, you will not 'fill' all the holes, even with an unlimited budget some varieties are just not available. Second, some of the coins will be very low grade/problem coins, even with a multi-million dollar budget.

 

Of course not. Had he taken the few seconds to google the coin instead of commenting, he easily could have learned of its significance.

It has character, Marshall. I like it, and a happy belated birthday to you.

 

I collect a bit more pricey large cents myself, but I like these utilitarian pieces that saw a hard life - because unlike the ones residing in cabinets with pedigrees these coins were out on the front lines doing the hard work for a young America.

Nice pickup and thanks for sharing.

 

That's a rare coin... hold it tight. :thumb: Those non-collectibles are impossible to find.

Which reminds me, I noticed I missed an R6+ Capped Bust half variety on eBay the other day

The $5000.00< coin sold in a BIN for $80.00. :desk:

 

Very nice piece! I doubt I'll ever own a NC large cent, even with holes, so I'm jealous to say the least.
Guy

 

I love it Marshall. Great pickup on an amazing piece of history.
My pre-1800 copper makes your's look like a gem!



Also, what does "NC" refer to?

 

"Non-collectible"

... because they're so rare.

 

It means you can probably count on one hand the number of collectors who have the opportunity in their lifetime to own one at any given time.
Guy

 

In Sheldon's book on large cents he separates out collectable varieties from non-collectable variates as those with 3 or more available to collectors vs those with <3 available. So for instance if there are 4 known of a variety to exist but 2 are in museums than the variety was a non-collectable.

I think it was one of the largest mistakes he made in the book as it makes emission sequences very unintuitive. For the collectable varieties he listed them as S-1, S-2, S-3, ... S-295 in sequential order. But the non-collectable varieties start at NC-1 for each year.

Additionally, as time passed, most of the NC varieties now have more than 3 available to collectors and are not truly non-collectable varieties, but because the Sheldon numbers are sequential from 1793 to 1814 there is no way to give the now collectable NC varieties an S- number. Right, you can't make the 1797 NC-5 now S-296 just because it's collectable because it messes up the whole numbering sequence. The middle late dates don't have this issue as the Newcomb number starts over each year at N-1... A new variety is found and it's generally added as the next available N number.

So what exactly is a Sheldon set of large cents, does it include NCs or is it just S-1 through s-295? This problem also makes NCs generally less valuable than equally rare S- numbered varieties, as a lot of collectors do not include the NCs in their variety sets.