Rarity Of 1798 Large Cent

How about a pic of that lovely coin

While I can't speak to this variety, I can tell you of a perhaps parallel situation. Some years ago, I acquired a 1797 NC-2 at a flea market. It took a bit of study before I realized what it was. It had a micro-porous surface with F-VF details. It was my first "NC" or Non-Collectible find. One of the top copper dealers at a show I subsequently attended had a comparable specimen for sale at about $6,000. He confirmed the variety, as had a few others to whom I'd shown the coin. As a potential buyer, he was under $1,000. He told me that more of the 1797 NC-2 varieties had been appearing in the market, making NC equal "Now Collectable."

Getting back to the S-182, there are doubtless more of this variety as yet to be recorded in the census. Whether we're looking at large cents, early U.S. tokens, counterstamps (my personally favorite genre), etc., I see a constant trickle of new examples entering the market in recent years. It may well take another decade or two before a truer census can be established for such pieces; this, as more dedicated collectors log and publish specimens.

Anyone who's seriously interested in large cent varieties should join the EAC. Members who don't disdain Facebook can share insight on the Copper Notes forum.

Good point for consideration, TJ. There are coins that are rare by virtue of the quality of the planchet, strike or die state. Then too, there are those collectors who see rarity in provenance. When one considers these factors, the overall population of specimens out there becomes less significant, methinks.

How about that pic, thursdayclub?

IMHO, Fine details. As I'm not a Sheldon variety collector, I'd not pay the freight that a better variety would draw. If I saw this coin in a shop or at a show, variety unknown, I'd likely be a buyer in the $150-$200 range. My experience tells me that a collector seeking an S-182 would go twice that amount, possibly more, seeing coin-in-hand. The key to selling better varieties is finding the folks who want them, and EAC auctions tend to draw the best prospects.

I had a better variety large cent that failed to sell at auction, my minimum, for $5500. I had previously declined a $3,000 offer from a top dealer. Some months passed, another dealer had a buyer for it, and I let it go for his best offer - $7,500. He had a buyer for a quick-flip. I knew that coin was a great buy at my minimum, and yet it failed to realize that amount at a major auction. I recently bought an 1808 large cent for about two-thirds of what it brought at auction, less than two years ago - same coin. Such is the market for early coppers! The market for S-VDB's is far less volatile.

thusdayclub - My point in sharing the story was that price is tends to be more relative with these early coppers and can vary greatly from collector to collector, dealer to dealer, etc. When one gets into the early varieties, especially, there tend to be more factors, like the die state, provenance, etc. One does have to be careful though, as there are electrotypes and altered dates. I would think that the greatest satisfaction for an early copper collector would come from discovering a new variety; this, exceeding a cherry-pick. I think that all collectors pay not enough for some coins and too much for others. The latter category tend to be the ones that we less like to share; this, from the standpoint of keeping score. It's always best, methinks, to focus on the coin/token and what it can tell us, what we can learn.