Well, what are you trying to attribute? That would help. Nowadays there are books for about anything you are looking for, be a little more specific and we can help!
Okay, there is no really good general book except for Breen's encyclopedia. Which has more opinions than facts, at times. For Bust $1/2: Overton's book (now by Don Parsley) 4th edition.
So are you trying to be able to attribute all varieties on a series? You really need to get a book specifically on that series to be able to. Yes, Breen's book is an excellent one, but still not specific enough. Like treashunt said, Overton is the standard for bust halves, Penny Whimsy for early cents, newcomb I believe for middle cents, etc. What I do when I want to see what the standard variety book is for a series is check the bibliography in the back of sales catalogs. Here is a pretty good link for US books, it will give you a bunch of references, and you can order here or look for those titles on Ebay: http://www.joelscoins.com/bookus.htm Most of my reference collection is in ancient coins, but I own most of the standards for US as well, if you ever want an opinion on a specific series. Just an aside, many collectors do not understand why they need specialized books like this. Sadly, the great majority of US collectors own a redbook, and maybe a photograde guide. These books have, besides attributions, a wealth of knowledge concerning specific minting practices, why certain issues are rare, unique historical knowledge and lots more to really increase your enjoyment in collecting. I truly wish more collectors would buy more specialized books, both for their coin collecting enjoyment and for their insights they will give you on the series. In collectibles, knowledge is money, and one little tidbit from a book will more than pay for itself. Chris
I agree with you about most collectors and most of my coins are just plain Janes, but I know I have a few that if I can prove what they are then i can get a few more bills out of them. I'm ready more and more every day to get rid of my collection, which happens to be a lot of type coins.
I can recommend the following: United States Large Cents 1793-1848, William C. Noyes United States Large Cents 1816-1839, William C. Noyes The Cent Book 1816-1839, John D. Wright The Die Varieties of United States Large Cents 1840-1857, John R. Grellman, Jr. Walter Breen's Encyclopedia of Early United States Cents 1793-1714, Walter Breen and Membership in Early American Coppers, Inc. http://www.eacs.org/ The club publication PENNY-WISE is a invaluable resource for the Large Cent collector.
I truly am sad that Heritage figured out that the offer of free catalogs using the code group in Coin World, NN, and others, would turn out to be unsupportable. Now you have to validate with auction receipts of certain amounts, I value my Heritage, Bowers and Merena, Christie's, etc. They were/are such a treasure. I can still review my B& M " The Norweb Collection" volumes, and see what world class coins look like. Sigh. Jim
