But it's still a chore. I've got an 1852 that's giving me grief. There are 19 Newman die varieties and I haven't IDed mine yet. (1851 has 45 die varieties; that's a real problem for me at my age.) I've got 3 guides but they are tough for me to deal with. - William Noyes' Unites States Large Cents six volume set (1793-1857) - John Wright's The Cent Book 1816-1839 - John Grellman's The Die Varieties of Unites States Large Cents 1840-1857. I'm sometimes tempted to ship them off to PCGS or NGC and let them do it for me. But I'm not ready to give up yet. Or I could go to the EAC convention next month and see if I can get one of the members to walk me through the process on a couple coins. But I don't travel very well anymore. Anyway I'll keep plugging away at it. I think the more I do it, the better I'll get.
Attributing Bust Half's befuddles me, and there is nowhere near the die varieties (marriages) that you are dealing with, Kanga........keep up the good fight and Marshall on, my friend. It is indeed what keeps us sharp, alert and active.
I think you may have meant Newcomb, he did the middle and late dates of large cents. Eric Newman was the guy who did Fugio cents. He was a great person to be around, one of the most knowledgeable people I have ever met. Right now my main method of attribution for late dates is Virtual Grellman with the DRN Filter Wizard. You input the positioning of the numbers in the date and it shows the attribution. It takes about 30 seconds a coin, and saves a lot of time in the long run. It costs $100 and is definitely worth the money. Here is a screen shot of what the menu looks like. https://www.largecents.net/VirtualGrellman/virtual_grellman.html I would definitely recommend you go to the EAC convention. You wont regret it.
Good Grief!!! I was just doing a quick reshuffling of my coin collecting references and I ran into these: Early Date U.S. Large Cent Cent Rapid Attribution Guide, Volume 1, 1793-1797 Early Date U.S. Large Cent Cent Rapid Attribution Guide, Volume 2, 1798-1814 by Thomas Walker I only have 29 large cents in that combined date range. Those coins tend to be more expensive, so I either: - don't buy one often, or - buy low grade varieties, or - buy the least expensive varieties. Now I'll have to see if these books will at least help me ID coins in that date range.
Can you post an image of your 1852 Cent. From a straight on perspective if possible. I'd like to test out some, what I call, Numismetrics to maybe figure out what variety your coin is.
