Which One Would You Keep For Your Collection - Picking From 2 1795 S-76B Liberty Cap Large Cents

Let me know when the 2nd one is for sale!

I love the denticle lines on the second coin, they bring it character. If I was buying one or the other, for the same amount of money, I'll take the first, but if I already had both I'd keep both unless I urgently needed money.

What kind of money are we talking about, anyway? $100? $500? $20? I don't have a Liberty Cap in my collection but I'm hoping I could get one some day - but if it's more of a $500+ level it might stay above my budget for a long time.

Nickelsearcher took the words out of my mouth.

Agree with Spence and others.

All in all, and if one of them had to go, I would keep coin 1.

Coin 2 is just too far gone, for me, personally.


This post reminds me, an S-76b was one of the first (or the first) Large Cent I ever bought for my collection back in 198h . I still have it and like it very much.

If I may show it, here it is:

I would sell #1 and keep #2. If a better one comes along I would upgrade it then.

thanks everyone. I like reading your thoughts here.

i should have said a bit about my collecting goals in the opening post. I am working on collecting all of the die varieties of large cent from 1793 - 1839 (thats ~600 coins). I'm about 2/3 of the way done with the sheldons (average grade eac vg) and am missing 9 coins for the middle dates (average grade eac vf). my current focus is to pick up the rare varieties in any grade.

because I'm focusing on the rarities I'm not planning on upgrading common coins like the 76b for a while. you can pick up a really nice vf for under $2k at most major coin shows. at this time I would rather spend that money on something like a terrible S-272 or S-264. I dont have infinite money so there will always be budget concerns for this project.

@sel - I hadnt really considered keeping both of them. I am going to think about that. I do have a small errors and dies states subsection that isn't part of the main collection.

@burfie23 - will do! I may end up keeping it. I'm not sure. ill let you know.

@january1may - the corroded coin cost $80 something like 20 years ago. I paid ~$225 for the second coin earlier this month. I'm not sure which one would be more valuable. I dont think they sell to the same audience. coin 1 would be mostly type set demand. coin 2 has a lot of potential to be loved by an advanced early copper collector.

@germanicvs - thats an excellent example! thats probably about the range I would shoot for it I were upgrading. very attractive. I'm always happy to see your beautiful coppers!

i stumbled onto this problem by accident. I had no intention of keeping the second coin when I bought it. it was being auctioned and I thought it would make a nice addition to my resale inventory. I got it in hand and its very nearly a choice coin despite its low grade. it showed up in an ancient envelope with a blacked out typewriter price of $17.50 on it. I did some learning and now its got a cool story to go with its nice surfaces and that minor off center error.

for those unaware Lapp was the founder of Pennywise which is the club journal for the Early American Copper Club. its the best publication in numismatics as far as I'm concerned. he was member #33. hes is a big part of why I have access to that coin club and all of the friends I have made through that club. having the coin be owned by the guy who attended to General Patton on his death bed makes the world seem so small to me. history is nearby and accessible. I'm a sucker for that kind of stuff.

im not sure which coin ill keep.

i dont like the first coin. it has more detail than any of my other 1795s. I have always known that it would get upgraded eventually. this variety is so common that it never ends up being a high enough priority for me to pull the trigger on an upgrade. there is always something I want more.

i like the second coin. its just soooooooo worn. it feels wrong to downgrade that far. it seems like a lot of you feel the same way.

thanks for your thoughts everyone. I appreciate it. I'm still not sure what I will do here but thats ok. having too many 1795 cents is a good problem to have.

funny thing - my S-76a (pretty scarce at R-5, same obverse and reverse as 76b but with a lettered edge instead of a plain edge) is quite a bit better than either of these. its a relatively problem free good thats is also a flip-over double-strike. here is that coin:

I don't have any