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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;johnmilton, post: 26159252, member: 101855&quot;]It took a while, but I finally received the lots I won in a recent StacksBowers auction. Three of lots where cents, which furthered my &quot;one cent per year collection, 1793 to 2025&quot; and one was a upgrade for a fairly scarce Hard Times Token. I now have four large cent dates left to go. </p><p><br /></p><p>This 1807 cent is supposed to be a common date among the early large cents, but for some reason, I have never owned one over 65 years as a collector. This one is graded EF-45. </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1670107[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>The 1811 is a better date. I owned one in Poor when I was kid, which barely showed the date. This one is VF-25. You can spend on fortune on this date, and I didn&#039;t want to do that. This one, as well as the 1807 and the Hard Times Token were in the late Dick August&#039;s collection. I knew Dick when I lived in New England. He and I traded coins and tokens over the years. </p><p><br /></p><p>Dick had a good eye for copper, and this piece is no exception. It has a fair amount of wear, but the surfaces are smooth and &quot;hard&quot; which means there is no corrosion. </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1670108[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>The third piece completed my &quot;album set&quot; Flying Eagle and Indian Cents. It is an 1858 Large Letters Flying Eagle Cent in MS-64. I thought that I would fill this spot with ease at either the big September Tampa show or Winter FUN. I was wrong. I ran into a lot overgraded coins, and some pieces in MS-65 and 66 holders. The price goes way up in MS-65, and some of those coins didn&#039;t make the grade. The worst one I saw was graded MS-66. My grade was MS-64. This one turned out to be better than I thought it would be from the pictures on-line. It&#039;s got lots of luster with the usual marks one would expect for the MS-64 grade.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1670109[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>The last piece is a fairly scarce Hard Times Token, listed in Rulau as HT-14, A.K.A. Low-6. I had one that I had bought from Dick August over 30 years ago. At the time he sold it to me, he said that the one he was keeping was only &quot;a little better.&quot; I think that this may have been that piece. This variety is rated as an R-5, 31 to 75 known. </p><p><br /></p><p>I was only going to buy this &quot;if the price was right,&quot; and oddly enough it was. I thought that it would sell for more. PCGS graded this AU-58. </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1670110[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>And here is the piece I bought from Dick August many years ago. </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1670111[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>Most people think of Hard Times tokens as pieces that are like large cents. This scarcer piece is smaller and lighter and made is made of brass, not pure copper.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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