Penny Whimsy

Jerseyben, to my knowledge there is no quick guide but there are other references: http://www.eacs.org/books.html

You should look into becoming a eac member. I am very glad that I joined! Lots of really great info!

Only other place I know of is Jack Robinson himself. The sad thing about copper quotes is that the twentieth edition is nearly three years old now and Jack is not planning to issue any future editions.

As far as something like the quickfinder guide for the early date cents, the only thing I know of is some stuff I wrote up for my own use that more closely matched his first edition, descriptions only no pictures. I've been toying around with updating it with pictures but I don't have anything ready for publication. One of the real problems with a quickfinders for the early dates is that most of the commonly used diagnostic points mentioned in the standard references are often only visible on better grade coins. Most early dates are low grade and/or problems coins. And with half of the 1798's and all of the 1800 coming from fully hubbed reverse dies, the fines points that tell the varieties apart often just aren't there.

The Sheldon original was the "Early American Cents" book in 1948, replaced by updated information and turned into "Penny Whimsy."

Published in several editions:

1958, 1976 and 1990, I like the 1976 edition the best as it's photos are the best quality. The 1990 edition has horrible reproductions of the photos.

Here is another resource:)
http://www.pcgs.com/books/earlycents/

I'd go with whichever one was cheaper. I will also say that while I prefer the 58, most people that express a preference do prefer the 76.

And a GREAT reference with superb images, but no descriptions of the diagnostics

http://images.goldbergauctions.com/...ng=1&sale=54

That is The Dan Holmes collection, the most complete set of early dates ever assembled missing only one variety. And that variety is also pictured in the sale. Most of the coins are higher end coins so you have some of the best pictures available. As a suggestionyou might dosomething I did. I copies the best images of each variety to my own computer that I can use with the descriptions from Penney Whimsey or The Breen early date large cent encyclopedia. Give me the best of both worlds, excellent descriptions with excellent images.

I just finally received my copy, I had decided not to buy one since PCGS had put up a copy for free online (yay PCGS )

But I found one for $100.00 which is a very fair price, and I could not resist.

The book is huge, about 1.5x larger than Breen's famous US coins Encyclopedia. There is still one available on Amazon used at $140.00 last I checked (still a good price), if your like me and are building a library, or just like real paper instead of a screen when reading and comparing various varieties to photos,

I was told there is an errata sheet for the Whitman Encyclopedia of Colonial Coins. I need to track it down.

I just bough the 1948 Early American cent book on the bay. First coin book purchase. The dust cover had some tears and was tapep up but the book is in good shape. Purchase price was 19.99 with free shipping. Does anyone on here have that book and is it a decent one? Thanks Jerry