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Bedrock of the Community
United States
11880 Posts |
Super excited today at having been able to acquire a First Edition of Dr. William Herbert Sheldon's "Early American Cents" printed in 1949. This work introduced to the world the Sheldon coin grading scale that we use every day today. I was also able to acquire a 1958 edition of Sheldon's "Penny Whimsy" written with Dorothy Paschal and Walter Breen that is unfortunately missing a few pages. All for a whopping $46 including shipping. This is now one of my most prized items in my numismatic collection. The sale notes from the current owner: These are the two classic books leading up to Sheldon and his colleagues starting the Early American Coppers (EAC) society in 1967. Both of the books have firm bindings, but are very well used. They came from the EAC library when it was being dismantled, and I purchased them for only $20 at a convention some years ago. These are essential references for the collector of 1793-1814 large cents, and each have the original "Early American Coppers Library" stamp inside their front cover.
I've had these for years on my shelf as scarce collectibles, and just paid attention to a note in the "Penny Whimsy' saying "Gift (with several pages missing) of R. B. Knight: III/IV, 23/24, 131/132, 133/134, 207/208, end 17/18 & 39/40". The more scarce "Early American Cents" (1st edition) is fully complete.  IN NECESSARIIS UNITAS - IN DUBIIS LIBERTAS - IN OMNIBUS CARITAS THE MAN IN THE ARENA, Theodore Roosevelt at the Sorbonne Paris on April 23, 1910: " It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat." My coin website: https://fairfaxcoins.comEdited by numismatic student
05/26/2017 4:12 pm
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Bedrock of the Community
 United States
11880 Posts |
Is anyone a member of EAC and perhaps knows who R.B. Knight was? Apparently he gifted the "Penny Whimsy" volume to the Early American Coppers (EAC) society library. Thanks!
IN NECESSARIIS UNITAS - IN DUBIIS LIBERTAS - IN OMNIBUS CARITAS THE MAN IN THE ARENA, Theodore Roosevelt at the Sorbonne Paris on April 23, 1910: " It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat." My coin website: https://fairfaxcoins.com |
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Moderator
 United States
34397 Posts |
Quote:
Super excited today at having been able to acquire a First Edition of Dr. William Herbert Sheldon's "Early American Cents" printed in 1949. Nice work--I bought mine a while back and agree that it is really neat to look through all the die linkages for these cents. "If you climb a good tree, you get a push."
-----Ghanaian proverb
"The danger we all now face is distinguishing between what is authentic and what is performed."
-----King Adz
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Moderator
United States
188052 Posts |
Very nice!  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4469 Posts |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
12057 Posts |
Richard B. Knight, yes, EAC member.
He was a contributor to Penny-Wise in the 70s. He authored at least one article I can find without pulling up PWRL:
"Early date U.S. large cents as investments," by R. B. Knight -- appeared in Volume VII, Issue #34 (1973.)
Member ANA - EAC - TNA - SSDC - CCT #890 "Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossible before they were done." -- Louis D. Brandeis |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
11880 Posts |
Thanks paralyse!
IN NECESSARIIS UNITAS - IN DUBIIS LIBERTAS - IN OMNIBUS CARITAS THE MAN IN THE ARENA, Theodore Roosevelt at the Sorbonne Paris on April 23, 1910: " It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat." My coin website: https://fairfaxcoins.com |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
12057 Posts |
YW :)
Member ANA - EAC - TNA - SSDC - CCT #890 "Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossible before they were done." -- Louis D. Brandeis |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
11880 Posts |
And thanks to all for your help and support.  IN NECESSARIIS UNITAS - IN DUBIIS LIBERTAS - IN OMNIBUS CARITAS THE MAN IN THE ARENA, Theodore Roosevelt at the Sorbonne Paris on April 23, 1910: " It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat." My coin website: https://fairfaxcoins.com |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
11880 Posts |
IN NECESSARIIS UNITAS - IN DUBIIS LIBERTAS - IN OMNIBUS CARITAS THE MAN IN THE ARENA, Theodore Roosevelt at the Sorbonne Paris on April 23, 1910: " It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat." My coin website: https://fairfaxcoins.comEdited by numismatic student
05/30/2017 9:56 pm
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
Really fantastic books. Wish I had those.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
12057 Posts |
The scale's original concept - that a basal value of $1 could be assigned to a Poor grade for one of Sheldon's early date Large Cents, and that therefore, an Uncirculated was worth $60, $65 or even $70 - was outdated shortly after Sheldon conceived of the notion. Regardless, the fact that the grades were supposed to represent VALUES was soon lost, and the scale became simply numerical descriptors of written grade standards. Apart from Dr. Sheldon, I'm not sure anyone else minded this consequence in the least. To those who might think "gradeflation" is new to the hobby, or recently so, it is worth noting that Dr. Sheldon's condition descriptions for grades such as Fine and Very Fine had already been "gradeflated" by the time of Brown & Dunn's line-drawing grading book, which was the pre-ANA/Bressett standard for a number of years (and still is for some older collectors.) EAC grading falls more in line with Dr. Sheldon's system, although a bit more lenient and lacking the direct association with value, which explains why an EAC 45 large cent and a TPG XF45 large cent are often two VERY different looking coins. You might also note that Dr. Sheldon was of the school of thought that sharpness/wear grade should be the only grade assigned, and that defects, strike problems, die states, etc. should be listed in the description, allowing the collector the liberty of "mentally adjusting" a grade, and therefore a value, based on his or her opinion of any given coin. There was and is merit in this approach, since a buyer and seller who couldn't agree on anything else could usually agree on a sharpness grade, and then let the value be determined by the buyer's opinion of the other qualities of the coin. However, this was mutually incompatible with printed price guides. So net grading evolved to have a sharpness grade and a net grade, with the idea that the net grade would be used for prices/values. The ANA and some other early TPG's preferred split grading (obverse/reverse) instead of true net grading, and even that was dropped when the slab era dawned and the entire description had gone from the several sentences of Dr. Sheldon's book to the word "DETAILS" and a one or two word remark. Beautiful books, those, and I hope you keep them in your library for years to come. Member ANA - EAC - TNA - SSDC - CCT #890 "Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossible before they were done." -- Louis D. Brandeis |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3479 Posts |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
11880 Posts |
Thanks for all the information and well wishes. I still can't believe that the auction for these books were at $30 or so, and I caught it with just a few minutes left on the bay. I guess you run into something cool every once in a while. Seller turned out to be a well known (I think - he comes up in google searches) EAC members who sold his extensive early copper collection in the mid 2000s at a major auction, and gave me some great advice to boot. IN NECESSARIIS UNITAS - IN DUBIIS LIBERTAS - IN OMNIBUS CARITAS THE MAN IN THE ARENA, Theodore Roosevelt at the Sorbonne Paris on April 23, 1910: " It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat." My coin website: https://fairfaxcoins.com |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
2362 Posts |
I bought a used copy of the 1958 edition a few years ago from a bookstore in Maine. Thanks for bringing up this topic as it reminded me to read and enjoy again the fascinating part 1 of this book. It's about 60 pages of introduction, background, and history of large cents. Great reading.
Member ANA and EAC "You got to lose to know how to win". Dream On by Aerosmith Edited by cipster
05/31/2017 12:05 pm
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Moderator
United States
188052 Posts |
Quote:
Giddy to have received this today. Very nice, numismatic_student, and thank you for that post, paralyse. |
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Replies: 17 / Views: 4,957 |
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Posted 05/26/2017 5:31 pm
