Buy The Holder Not The Coin - My 1850 A-5 Large Cent

The adage of buy the coin not the holder is quite popular among coin collectors and is great advice. Its important to truly look at the coin you are buying. every once in a while a coin comes along that proves the opposite to be true.

1850 Large Cent N-5 R-4



here is the coin in its home, the pill box from the Howard Newcomb collection. these pill boxes were a common way of storing coins in the late 1800s and early 1900s.


this coin was used as the reference piece when writing not one but two of the major tomes on the subject of late date large cents. it is the reference coin for all of these books.


Frank D. Andrews is the first name on the pedigree. He used this coin to identify this die marriage in his 1883 book "An Arrangement of United States Copper Cents 1816-1857" where he described it as A-5. here is his description of the variety. there is a small dent on the 5 in the date that Andrews mis-categorized as a die flaw.


Howard Newcomb used this coin as his reference piece in his 1944 book "United States Copper Cents 1816-1857" where it was renumbered as the N-5. we still use the Newcomb numbers today.


The coin was also owned by Henry Hines, Floyd Starr, and Ted Naftzger. those are some big names to have as footnotes on the pedigree of a coin.