Found The Book United States Copper Cents 1816-1857 Online - Last Page

Posted 01/21/2015 12:25 pm

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What about the relation of the tip of the star to the point of the coronet? How should I line up the coin for that one?

The star should be vertical with an imaginary line running through the star from the point pointing at the denticals through the center of the star and out through the point pointing toward the tip of the coronet. After a bit you will find that you can imagine the line without having to orient the star vertically.

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And I almost forgot, what book would you recommend for the latter Large Cents?

For the late dates you have two possibilities. Attribution Guide for United States Large Cents 1840 - 1857 by J R Grellman and there is a two volume book on 1816 - 1857 by William Noyes. I have to admit I don't have the Noyes book and have never had a chance to try using it so I don't know how good it is. The Grellman book has been the standard reference for the series since the 1980's and is the one most people use. There have been three editions of the book. It is easier than the Newcomb book but I warn you it still is NOT an easy book for a beginner to use. The problem with the late dates was that the by that time all the dies were fully hubbed and the only differences between the dies were from the placement of the date punch, lines left on the dies during the finishing/polishing process, and die cracks/cuds and sometimes areas of roughness that develop as the dies wear. The date area under the bust isn't that large compared to the date punch so it doesn't move around a whole lot. The lines, points etc from the die finishing are often very small and faint and tend to disappear quickly as either the die or the coin wears. These features are so small and faint that they do not show up in photos so the book uses line drawing to indicate them. If you are working with coins below VF it can often be impossible to completely attribute them, the best you might be able to do is narrow it down to a few possibilities from the date position. The Grellman book is available (autographed if desired) from the author at a cost of $100. Address available on request. But you might be able to find a used copy on ebay. I only found one copy on abebook and they wanted $250 for a second edition. second edition for $250, third edition for $100? No Brainer.

One thing I should mention about the Noyes book, for some reason he did NOT split the two volumes at the dividing point between the middle and late dates so if you want the late date you still have to buy both volumes of the book. And with each volume costing around $100 it is significanly ore expensive than Grellman. The Noyes books are only available from Numismatic literature dealer Charlie Davis (Numislit on ebay sometimes he lists copies there as well) Noyes books are United States Large Cents 1816 - 1845 and United States Large Cents 1846 - 1857. I haven't found a used copy of either on the online used book sellers.

There are currently no copies of any of these three books on ebay.

Edited by Conder101
01/21/2015 12:48 pm

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