Book Review: Provenance Gallery Of The Year 1794

Provenance Gallery of the year 1794 United States Large Cents
by Jon Alan Boka

ISBN# 0-9764838-0-7

This book is hardbound with a glossy color cover and no dust jacket. It has 139 pages, including 63 of color plates, and a well written introduction by John W. Adams. My copy is also signed by the author, always a bonus in my eyes!

This book is an overview of the formation of the United States monetary system and the Philadelphia Mint as well as the conditions surrounding the production of what many collectors consider the ultimate numismatic subject: The fifty-eight collectible varieties of the Large Cents of 1794.

Also a brief history of large cent collecting and their collectors. Descriptions of all collectible obverse & reverse designs as well as colorful photographic plates of each coin featured in the "Provenance Exhibit" at the 2004 EAC convention in San Diego.

Chapter One:
Covers the formation of the United States Mint. A neat story of possibly the only known written account of a visitor to the Mint in 1812 follows, the much information of
Mint production techniques and troubles. Yellow fever ravages Philadelphia and Robert Scot is hired on by the US Mint is how the first section finishes off.

Chapter Two:
Takes the reader on a journey through time to discover how Large cent collecting began, it then covers some of the earliest writings on collecting large cents with Dr. Maris' 1869 publication, and other literature on 1794 large cents. Chapter two ends with a bibliography of people of note in 1794 large cent collecting.

Chapter Three:
This chapter covers the various descriptions of each of the 1794 large cent obverse styles.

Chapter Four:
Here you will find the photographic plates of each known "collectible" varieties of 1794 large cents (Sheldon 17a through Sheldon 72) there are 11 non-collectible varieties which are omitted from this section. The photographic plates are from the 1794 Provenance exhibit coins displayed at the San Diego Early American Copper convention in 2004. This took many of the finest known 1794 large cents from 16 different collectors to complete, not an easy task at all! The chapter finishes off with a pictorial of the designs of all the early large cents from 1793 onwards.

This is a small book, quite specialized, but easily readable and the provenance coins shown in high quality photographs make it a must have for collectors of the 1794 large cents as an inexpensive aid in attributing them

The author Jon Boka maintains a website at http://www.1794largecents.com
Here you can order his fine book for only $25.00
His website also maintains the current list of biographies along with other information relating to the collecting and study of 1794 Large Cents, please stop by for a visit.