Large Cents

are these the large british cents ?

oh . I really haven't got into those yet.. they are quite pricy. I just started on the brittish large cents. I am like you with the wheats and the indians. good luck, I can't help at all

No, those are pennies.

But isn't that what we have too. Only for some reason some, not many, call them Cents.
Meanwhile back to those Large things. Here is my advise. DON'T. I have well over 100 Albums and only one of them is for Large Cents. I have numerous duplicates of normal, nice to look for, fun to find coins but NO duplicates of those Large Cents. I'm still missing about 15 or 20 of them and have been looking for a long, long time. I go to coin shows about 2 to 4 times a Month and out of all the coins not commonly there, it's those Large Cents. My Album is a Whitman, year only set, yet so many of those are so expensive and for a coin that is almost worn flat. I noticed in the Red Book they start with a grade of AG not just G-4 like normal coins.
Makes for a nice looking set but the prices are just ridiculous.

I've bought cars for less than that coin is worth.

I agree, EAC is the way to go ;-)

My advice is at first just work on a date set, maybe just a date set of a specific type. The late dates is a good choice for that 1840 - 57. It is definitely doable, and can be done in nice grade without breaking the bank. Then you can work your way on back if you wish.

If you find that the large cents agree with you and you want to dabble in the varieties (And no one says you have to do varieties) I would suggest starting with one of the middle dates. You don't have to do all the middle dates. You will probably find that there is one date in particular that you especially like, and try doing a variety set of just that one year. Once you finish it you can do another year and so on. just be careful though because the varieties can become very addictive.

The reason I suggest the middle dates is because the early and middle dates are much easier to attribute than the late dates, and the early dates are much more expensive. The early dates are good for people with deeper pockets and the late dates are good for people with masochistic tendencies.

More advice on the middle dates. As a beginner avoid 1834 to 39 until you have some experience under your belt. They are tougher to attribute. Stay away from 1822, 1825, and 1830, probably 1827 as well. 1822 has N-9, 13 and 14. N-9 is tough and costly but possible, N-13 probably high three figures for a low grade coin, and N-14 well there are only five known. But if you can cherry pick an N-14 then by all means go ahead and do 1822. 1825 was easy until the long lost N-5 showed up. The count is now exactly one piece seen since 1882. Once again learn what to look for and maybe you can find the second one. 1830 has N-9 and N-11, mid four figure coins even in low grade need I say more. 1827 has N-10, 11, and 12. Rare coins, can be done but will dent your pocketbook. Don't get me wrong there are still so good challenges in the other years as well but not on the level of the ones I've mentioned. (1816 N-6, 1817 N-17, 1818 N-4, 1820 N-14, 1824 N-5 etc.) But the other years are definitely doable.

If you want to do early date you might try the Classic heads 1808 to 1814. Can be done as either a date set or a variety set. Nothing really rare but the 1809 is tough and the 1811 and 13 are scarce. The real challenge here is finding decent coins. As a rule the classic heads come on dark rough porous planchets, even in the higher grades.

Very impressive info. Thanks for sharing. I've been thinking about getting into large cents for a few years now. Maybe this will be the year.