Large Cent Braided Hair (1839-1857)

So, I was hanging out in this coin forum called CoinTalk, when someone(@kanga ) asked about an attribution for some large cent date. That was all it took and I was hooked. I had no large cents in my collection. I was off to E-Bay for some coin buying.

I had very little reference material of my own to start buying properly. I just went for it. I ended up buying 4 or 5 coins. I think 4. I have received 3. This is my first question. What recommended reading/reference material do I need to be a large cent expert(loose term)? I have seen the options for books, but, would also like recommendations.

Secondly, how much are these coins counterfeited? Are there some tell tale signs to be aware of. I haven't seen much mentioned of these coins. I surely want to be aware of any known abnormalities.

Like many others I am a proud owner of a new Dansco 7070 type album. So filling holes is the order of the day. But, now I am hooked on these Braided Hair cents. Eventually I would like to upgrade to a better coin. Mostly, I have observed most higher grade coins are slabbed. I thought I would buy a few cheaper ones in VF-XF grades raw to learn the coin and some details.

Any and all tips are welcome. Without further ado these are the three I have received so far.

 

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1846

 

1853

 

1856 This one I paid $9.50 for. It is either porous or a rusty die.

 

I am a big fan of all the Official Red Book books, especially "A Guide Book of Half Cents and Large Cents" by Q. David Bowers

 

Big fan of the braided hair Cents and half cents. For variety attribution, the Newcomb book is a great read, but it takes some getting used to. I prefer to use old auction catalogs. I have all of the Dan Holmes catalogs and it has tons of great photos. Here's my date set as it stands. You can see them better here. https://www.cointalk.com/threads/braided-hair-large-cents-date-set.296769/

 

Congrats, sounds like you've been bit by the copper bug!!!

In terms of late date attribution, I would only really consider Grellman. Newcomb is interesting from a numismatic history perspective, and cool in that it's hand written. But as an attribution guide it is hard to use and often incorrect. Grellman is your only choice here, nothing else is close. The material is not available anywhere online, and even catalogs like the Holmes sale are not enough. With that said, the book can easily pay for itself.

Other recommendations, join Early American Copper club. It's an awesome organization and quite a few serious late date collectors are in the club, guys with 300+ late date varieties. If you get deep in the woods for late dates it's a must. New die states are discovered, they keep a census of all varieties and most die states as well as major rotations.

When I got interested Jack Robinson had just produced the last CQR price guide. It's no longer current, but I would still consider picking up a copy to get a sense on pricing. It also has limited census information and gives a good idea on price differential between scarce and rare varieties.

Honestly, not much and certainly not well. Most of the counterfeits are still pretty poor and easily identified. I will add, late date counterfeits generally are not correct die marriages at this point, so learning how to attribute is your best protection. If you find a coin that is not listed, it's either a discovery coin or a counterfeit with the latter being much more likley.

Late dates are generally tough to attribute down in the f range, but vf plus can have enough detail. A significant portion of copper collectors still prefer raw coins and most of the major dealers still sell most of their inventory this way. I'll leave you with a link to the best late date collection online:

www.early-copper.com

 

Grellman's book is the best
BUT
it only covers the Braided Hair design.
And then only 1840-1857.
The more general term "Large Cents" covers the date range 1793-1857.
And the Liberty Head design is a subset, 1816-1857.
And the Braided Hair design is a subset of that.

If you look in your Red Book you'll see all that info.
I selected the 1840-1857 date range because it looked like something I could complete if I stuck to dates and major varieties.
Newcomb varieties would be a huge undertaking and beyond my budget.

 

Good choice. Large cents are great - but once you start you will be working you way back. I have the grellman book and it is hard to use in my opinion. You get a little off and you could be looking at the wrong numbers. I pretty much stopped using it and only pull it out on occasion. I do use grellman and newcombs books.

 

There are tricks to using Grellman that make it easier, but attributing late date large cents takes a lot of practice and has a steep learning curve. One suggestion is to label the date position references with the rarity scale. The reality is that most random large cents are going to be R1 or R2 varieties. Attribution should start by looking at date position, then if multiple options exist go from most common to rarest.

 

Good point. One of these days I might have to give it a try.

 

Thanks for all the replies. Sorry I didn't get back to this yesterday. But, the first half of the morning I went through every 1848 large cent that was listed on E-Bay. I knew there was going to be that cherrypick of a lifetime. Nope. Didn't happen. I think there was around 1050 listed. Some, there was no way to attribute. It was fun. I did see one overdate. I didn't buy any.

I did pick up an 1855 upright 55 this morning. I wasn't really looking to buy, but, the coin was underpriced and the seller under graded the coin. The coin also had very few contact marks. So, I couldn't resist and bought it. This coin will already upgrade the coin in the 7070. So, today is time to add more items to my store to feed my addiction. My store is mostly for my coin money. So, I have to keep it stocked if I want more coins.

Thanks for the heads up on the books. I already spotted a Newcomb book. I'll look for the Grellman also. I do have the first edition of the Mega Redbook. It has an expanded section on large cents. It has rudimentary info, but, it has kept me informed on retail pricing and a few of the more common attributions. That is what got me going on the 1848 counterfeit coin yesterday.

 

Thanks. That only feeds my frenzy more. Seriously nice collection. One day. Thanks for sharing.

 

Thanks for all the information that is a big help. Now, after looking at your avatar is this where my collecting habits are leading. Will I soon be into ancients?

When I first received the coins in the mail and held them in my hand that was kind of special. There are days when I have quite a few cents in my pocket. If I had ten large cents in my pocket I would call that deep pockets.

I will check into the EAC club. Thanks for the link.

 

Right now I am going to stick to the 1840-57 dates. The earlier dates just didn't get the juices flowing like the Braided Hair series. And yeah I am on a budget also. I have seen some of the rarer die varieties for sell and they are expensive. Maybe later. Thanks for the info.

 

I don't believe there is an overdate in 1848. There are several repunched dates but no overdates.

 

There is something about handling a large cent that is very very special. I never could get into slabbing these coins as it just gets in the way of that connection.

Here is the thing with ancients, there are a lot of big bronze/copper ancients that are very affordable. Once you get hooked on the large copper and the way it patina's, the siren song of 2000 year old large copper with even more interesting patina becomes hard to resist. There are quite a few EAC members whose ancient collections are substantial...

 

'Tis porous. Still much nicer than my first large cent that I paid $14 for.

 

My 13 year old son, who brought me back to coin collecting a few years ago, was bitten by the large cent bug. He got excited about coins watching metal detector YouTube videos of all things. Go figure.

A family member started me collecting when I was 6 or 7 because of my love of history. When my son jumped in, it brought back the coin and history bug for me. My son's large cent collection is beginner grade. But he does a lot of research and has big plans.

It's a great series and I'm lurking on threads like this to pick up info so I can help him do things right.

Thanks, everyone for the info. Not only do you help the person who started the thread, you help lurkers like me too!

 

Just got this 1849 today. Thoughts?