Luckily there are many excellent standard references to assist us in navigating the myriad possibilities open to us in this fascinating field of numismatics. Here are the meat and potatoes books to illuminate your path.

1.The Half Cent Die State Book 1793-1857

Since its publication in 2000, this volume has become THE half cent attribution book. Each variety is illustrated with multiple plates and individual die states are described for each variety as well. The research is far superior to Breen.

2. Walter Breen’s Encyclopedia of United States Half Cents, 1793-1857

For a complete review of this book, see my review post here.

3. American half cents, the “little half sisters”: A reference book on the United States half cent coined from 1793 to 1857

This was the original attribution guide for U.S. half cents. Somewhat obsolete, the volume still has much merit and should be a part of every half cent lover’s library if for no other reason than to compare and contrast with the newer references.

4. WALTER BREEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA OF EARLY UNITED STATES CENTS 1793-1814

Published in 2001 in collaboration with Del Bland and Mark Borckardt, this is by far the most current reference for early large cents. Not only are all known varieties illustrated and described but there are also many additional chapters on minting technology, mint errors, and much more.

5. United States Large Cents 1793 – 1814

From EAC: “A revision of Sheldon’s “Penny Whimsy”. Updated rarity ratings and condition census data for all varieties. Contains approximately a dozen new varieties not in Penny Whimsy. Superb 3 inch diameter plates of obverse and reverse of each variety with lots of additional plates for important die states.”

6. Penny Whimsy

The standard reference on early date large cents from 1958 until the Noyes update. Still very adequate today, though some newly discovered varieties are not represented.

7. United States Large Cents 1816 – 1839

Like his early date volume, this reference features huge 3 inch diameter plates of the obverse and reverse of every middle date variety. The Noyes books make attribution easy. Rarity ratings and condition census data are also a plus.

8. The Cent Book 1816 – 1839

This is my middle date reference of choice, simply because I’m so familiar with it. Like Noyes, every variety is illustrated front and back by large 3 inch photos. Historical information is plentiful and the included quick finder section is simple and easy to use. General condition census info and updated rarity ratings are included.

9. Attribution Guide for United States Large Cents 1840-1857 by John R. Grellman & Jules Riever

Unfortunately, I cannot locate a copy of this book to review it properly. However, every late date collector I know highly recommends it.

10. The Die Varieties of United States Large Cents, 1840-1957

Again, from EAC: “A 400+ page book which greatly improves upon the Newcomb book by the use of high quality line drawings for each variety. Contains much more descriptive data on each variety than found in Newcomb. One full page is devoted to each variety. Attribution of late date large cents has been greatly simplified by the use of this book.”

Hopefully this will help fuel interest in the early copper coinage of the United States. Next week we will discuss some of the important references available to those with a colonial bent. Colonial coinage has been gaining in popularity over the last 3 to 5 years and there are still some very affordable areas in which to concentrate your interest. If you love early American history and want to become a caretaker of these relics of our past, arm yourself with this knowledge. Enjoyment awaits!

Some years ago I received this Upper Canada halfpenny token as part of a trade. The “T.F. Haywood” counterstamp was very intriguing and has afforded me many hours of speculation.

So now we jump forward to the last month or so and the fortuitous discovery of some excellent antique references. What follows is the result of my recent research. Let’s take a trip to the Great Lakes region of the 1830′s:

Around the time Queen Victoria was about to ascend the throne of England, Canada’s merchants and shopkeepers began issuing fractional currency in response to the suspension of specie by local banks. The public became less and less accepting of these bills, as the varying quality and dizzying variety only compounded the small change problem.

It is here that we meet Mr. T.D. Harris, a Toronto hardware dealer whose firm was known by the “sign of the Anvil and Sledge”. The business had been started in 1829 under the name John Watkins & Co., Harris being the “& Co.”, and in 1832 the firm assumed the name Watkins & Harris.

Watkins & Harris was the only firm in Toronto to issue fractional currency notes, or shinplasters, but other businesses were circulating copper and brass tokens with success. Recognizing the greater practicality of hard currency rather than the quickly worn out paper alternative, Watkins & Harris began issuing what are now commonly known as “Sloop Halfpennies” sometime between 1832 and 1840.

We get corroboration of this fact from “The Canadian Antiquarian and Numismatic Journal”, vol. 8-9: “The one masted vessel on the Sloop Halfpenny was Mr. Oates’ Duke of Richmond packet, taken as a symbol of the traffic and commerce on Lake Ontario. In the newspapers of the period there was at the head of the Richmond’s advertisement a rude woodcut of the vessel, and this was copied as a device upon the copper piece…this token was issued, I believe, by the Messrs. Watkins and Harris, hardware merchants at Toronto…”

Descriptions of the known varieties of the Sloop Halfpenny series can be found in the 1881 edition of the “American Journal of Numismatics”, vol.14-16, pp.37-38. The revealing remarks between descriptions shed further light on these coppers:

“Those who put into circulation these tokens, although they found their illegal issue a profitable undertaking, assumed the role of public benefactors by such inscriptions as “commercial change”, “to facilitate trade”, and the like”.

“These sloop halfpennies had an extensive circulation in Upper Canada, and from the many different reverses, it would appear that more than one firm was connected with their issue.”

“The commerce of Lake Ontario was almost entirely carried on in sloops; larger vessels were nearly unknown on its waters. This design was therefore popular on that account”.

So there we have the origin of the Sloop Halfpenny token of Upper Canada. But what of T.F. Haywood? For this we turn to “The Fisheries of the Great Lakes” by Frederick W. True, 1880. The Haywood family were successful boatbuilders, so successful in fact that their boats were actually referred to as “Haywoods”. T.F. Haywood was undoubtedly a predecessor of Mr. O.P. Haywood, who is described as having a particularly hard time selling his boats in 1880 because “…the fishermen have been too poor to invest in them. He has, however, the reputation of being the best boatbuilder on the lakes.”

The enterprising Mr. Haywood found an excellent advertising medium for his boatbuilding industry by counterstamping the popular and extensively circulating Sloop tokens. Now the only question that remains: why is this token dated 1820 when Watkins & Harris didn’t begin coining tokens until after 1832?

Remember the series of posts on the Massachusetts silver of 1652 posted here some time ago? Though Massachusetts produced silver coinage well into the 1670′s, almost all were dated 1652 to circumvent England’s laws against privately issued coinage. It seems our neighbors to the north weren’t averse to a little deception either. Once again local economies provided for the needs of the public despite oppressive laws against aspects of colonial independence.

Image courtesy of auctionshelp.com

This story comes from fellow Early American Coppers member James Higby. His experiences mirror our own as we become custodians of our little pieces of history. This article originally appeared in the March 2008 issue of Penny-Wise, the quarterly EAC newsletter, and is reprinted with the permission of Early American Coppers, Inc.

There I sat, toward the end of the first day of a two-day show, having found nothing for the
collection. Even Tom Reynolds’s copper stock, always broad and deep, had failed to yield any
needed variety, at least in the way-down-low state of preservation to which I have had to resort
in these latter days of collection-building. Tom had a corner setting at this particular show, with
what I call his “cheap seats” (where I was firmly ensconced) down the aisle, and his more
stratospheric items on the endcap table. Just for fun, I craned my neck over to the more pricey
Boardwalk/Park Place area, where he also displays his slabs, and, squinting mightily, thought I
spied an item that had twice eluded me in the past – a silver dollar bearing the mystical date of
1799. The more recent of those second-place finishes had found me on cellphone hold with a
favorite dealer, who, when he came back to my call and heard what I wanted, had to tell me that
he wished I had initiated my call 13 seconds sooner. Yes, there I sat, remembering all that, and
loaded for bear.

The chairs at Tom’s end table were occupied, so he obliged my request that he get it out of
the case for me. What a beauty it was in its PCGS holder, with its original color and surfaces,
plus a delightful array of die cracks here and there on the obverse (did I just now prematurely
betray that I brought it home with me?)! I quickly became oblivious to my surroundings, going
over the coin again and again, as Bill Noyes advises in the introduction to his books, to find any
and all defects that might be there. I must have flipped the slab between obverse and reverse two
dozen times, before another EAC member and friend sitting next to me leaned over and wryly
observed, “You’re bonding with that coin, aren’t you?” That was the first time I had ever been
asked that question. I responded with another question: “How did you know?” “I recognize the
look,” was his answer.

Suddenly a host of questions coursed through my mind: Was I sweating, or worse, drooling?
Could he somehow detect my elevated adrenaline level from afar? Were my increased pulse and
blood pressure observable from the outside? Was I [gasp] breathing heavily? Or babbling
meaningless syllables? Was I “sugaring the strawberries,” as the French refer to tremors of the
hands? Was I humming my college fight song without realizing it? No, a quick check answered
in the negative to all. But I’m still not really sure. In any event, thanks to Jeff Noonan for
identifying and naming this phenomenon and inspiring this essay.

All of us have probably observed it in others, even if we are not aware of it in ourselves. We
have watched someone else sitting at a dealer’s table, mulling over a potential purchase,
justifying and rationalizing until the decision is made. Some of these potential buyers maintain a
constant patter of verbal interchange with themselves and with the dealer, while others, such as I,
contemplate the purchase in silence. The painful part, handing over the wad of greenbacks or
writing out the check, is mercifully over in practically no time, and the coin is now his/ours. We
then relive the many times we have gone through the exact same sequence of activity in adding a
coin to our collection. Into a secure place in the coin bag it goes, along with assorted other things
that have attracted our fancy at the show. When it’s time to go home, the coin bag is kept close at
hand, just in case we have an opportunity to cop a quick glance at our new treasure while sitting
at a red light or other suitable time. The bonding continues…

It seems that the return to the home domicile is always accompanied by many distractions:
wife and kids to greet, mail to sort through, dog to wrestle with, voice mail to triage, weekend
“work” emails (don’t those guys ever take a day off?) and plumbing emergencies to handle. “Oh,
and your Mom called, twice. She didn’t say what she wanted.” As we go about the fulfillment of
these obligations, we do not forget that a fresh bonding session eventually awaits us. But it may
be hours before we can get back to the coin cache, or, if it was a Sunday show, maybe days.

Ah, finally, it’s Wednesday evening, the most urgent obligations of the work week have been
dispatched, the kids are off to jobs and music lessons, we’re caught up on at least some of the
reading material, and find ourselves in the sole company of Fido, now fed and pottied and
contentedly chewing on a rawhide bone. We remember the treasures we brought home from that
now long-ago weekend coin show. We rescue the coin bag from behind some things that have
accumulated in front of it: our bowling bag from Monday evening, our briefcase containing work
we really should be doing instead of looking at coins, and our son’s guitar case that he just didn’t
have time to put away. But once we dig into the special compartment reserved for the latest
acquisitions and carefully draw them out, we know we’re in for a pleasant evening.

Old copper coins are such easy things to bond with! Perhaps more than any other early
American coins, they have both the look and feel of times gone by. The fact that they were used
by rich and common people alike adds to their appeal. Far from being flashy, they look humble
themselves, sometimes worthy of our pity as much as our admiration. Unaffected by the current
spot price of bullion, they have to stand entirely on their own merit. But there was that something
about these coppers from the show that especially attracted our attention, so we afford them extra
time. We wonder if Lady Liberty feels the same about us as we feel about her.

When I have several new coins to look at in a single session, I like to get them all out and
arrange them in some sort of symmetrical pattern on the top of my desk and under the bright
lamp. I try to include some of my older acquisitions so that they will all get to know each other
better. Doing so emphasizes the spectacular range of colors that old copper takes on, and the less
attractive ones are somehow acquitted of the charges against them and validated by their
acceptance into the company of the nicer pieces. After all, they might just have feelings, and I
wish all my coins to feel good about themselves while they are in my custody.

So, I bond with them. The more I do it, the easier it becomes, for me and for them. As coins
become harder and harder to locate and buy, the realization grows that I might be coming closer
to the time when new purchases are fewer and farther between, all the more reason to fall more
deeply in love with the ones I have managed to make part of my life. At some future time each of
us will purchase our “last” coin, usually without knowing that it is our “last.” Perhaps more true
than with any other series, we buy our coppers less for financial gain, and more for highly
emotional reasons. Thus should we gather our coppers while we may, and make it a point to find
the time to spend with them and strengthen the bond we have made with them across the
centuries.

Here’s a great addition to your type set if you’re looking for a good representative of the “recessed date” variety. One of my prettiest SLQs for only $35!

All original with a little color at the lower periphery on the obverse and a few splashes on the reverse. Great price! Only $40

If you want a branch mint SLQ with a nice strike have a look at this ’20-S! Only $50

Another SLQ from my personal collection. Classic design and above average quality. Only $90

Gorgeous “bare breast” SLQ with outstanding strike and luster! Toning much more attractive than photo. A stunning Type I for your type set! Only $140

Here’s a nice lightly circulated Buffalo from the final year of issue. Lots of luster and a pretty gold tone. Only $15

SOLD

A beautiful Philly Buffalo from the ’20′s. Would make a great Type II for a type set! Only $25