Newcomb Numbers?

Hello,

I have started to be interested in Early Copper, but mostly the coronet middle dates. I always hear people talk about the N1 N3's etc. But I don't understand what they mean and how to identify them. On the large cent I got it says N5. Can you guys please try to explain or give me links to some books I can use?

Thanks for your help,

Daniel

 

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For middle dates I recommend The Cent Book by John D Wright. It will explain the diagnostics for the various varieties, which is what the N-1 ect are.
Guy

 

Thanks!

Dan

 

There are generally two books for middle date large cent people will recommend. The first is 'The cent book' by John Wright, costs about $100 post paid from the author. I have heard you can find them on ebay for less, but they are pretty rare to show up there. The other book is by Bill Noyes, "Us large cents 1816-1839", costs around $120 new but can be found on ebay.

The other book is the actual newcomb book, but I don't know many people who use it.

As far as dealers, check out Tom Deck, his book section is;

http://www.largecents.net/books/bookindex.html


Or check out Shawn Yancey at:

http://www.earlycoppercoins.com/Everything-Else_c_8.html


They are two great dealers. If you are starting to get interested I would highly recommend one other book, it's the copper quotes by Robinson which is the price guide most use for early american copper, updated after major auctions and runs around $40, but will save you money in the long run.

Lastly, I would highly recommend joining the early american copper club, they are a tremendous resource for large cents:
eacs.org

Just a heads up, although old here is a good list of books/auction catalogues for large cent collecting, written by Dennis Loring, a huge EAC collector:

http://www.eacs.org/lcctext.htm

If you are interested in just how big, go check out the Heritage Auction coming up in Jan 2012 and look at the 1793 large cent in there, they are all his, and only his 93s...

 

Thank you so much!!!

 

Denis's 1793 are the last of his Early dates. Denis was the fourth person to complete the Sheldon numbered varieties but his collection was disbursed long ago.