It was asked in my 1796 Liberty Cap post down below about what is the Sheldon difference.
OK, We all know that certain coins are more rare than others and what many do not realize is the a great majority of our older coins had many different dies used in the same year during the making of the coins.
Each die usually was different by sometimes minute differences and sometimes rather dramatic differences.
Those differences can range from , different sized date, spacing of letters, missing parts, like maybe some of the Pole on a Liberty Cap Cent and a myriad of other reasons, but the bottom line is, all coins of the same year are not created equal.
Now, with that said, If I keep this information statement short, let's just say, for Large Cents, two men, a Dr William Sheldon and Howard Newcomb, studied Large Cents and looked for all those Minuit difference and came a numbering system for each coin that was different in the same year.
In Dr Sheldon's case, he wrote a book called Penny Whimsy, which covers Large Cents from 1793 to 1814. He identified all the varieties for each year and numbered them in order, Thus the Sheldon numbering system which would be like the ones I posted, example 1796 Liberty Cap Large Cent, variety S-84.
Sheldon is credited with development of the Sheldon grading system using a scale from 1 to 70 points. Although it was originally intended only for use with large cents, this grading scale has become standard for use in grading all series of U.S. coins. Sheldon identified "collectible" varieties of early cents 1793-1814 and assigned numbers S-1 thru S-295.
Mr Newcomb, did the same thing with the later year Large Cents, 1816 to 1857 and his using the numbering system using his name with an example being a 1820 Coronet Large Cent N.12 variety.
His book is great, I got it for Christmas and although a bit pricey, if you get a good number of Large Cents, it makes for interesting winter time thing to do, ATTRIBUTE your Large Cents, meaning, what variety is that 1835 Large Cent you found.
Why is variety important, well, variety determines RARITY, we all know that mintage numbers help determine the value of a coin, besides the obvious, what condition it is in. Well, since most Large Cents, especially in the early years had many many varieties, that determines the Rarity value of that coin for that year.
So, by knowing the variety of a particular year makes a big difference in the value of the coin.
Here is a list of the different varieties of a 1793, Flowing Hair, Reverse Wreath type Large Cent.
As you can see, there are 9 varieties listed by Sheldon. Well, we all might think if we found a Large Cent that we would be rich. Not the case. I was just at a coin show today and I saw some 1793's listed for only 900 dollars in VF-20 condition and some in the 4000-8000 dollar range. The difference was not condition but VARIETY. A common Sheldon variety versus a Very Rare variety in the same condition is a huge amount of difference in value.
Sheldon 5 - Very Scarce
Sheldon 6 - Scarce
Sheldon 7 - Very Rare
Sheldon 8 - Common
Sheldon 9 - Common
Sheldon 10 - Very Scarce
Sheldon 11a - Rare
Sheldon NC-4 - 4 known
Sheldon NC-5 - Unique!
I hope someone gained some knowledge from my babbling here, one thing I like to stress, is, on old coppers, the corrosion kills value, but if you have a scarcer variety, it will still be in demand by collectors, due to supply and demand. It is important to identify your finds, just in case you do have a super rare variety or even one that is scarce.
Here is a website on Large Cents by a private individual that I look at sometimes for rough attributing, although the books are the best for doing so.
http://www.largecents.net/
Don
OK, We all know that certain coins are more rare than others and what many do not realize is the a great majority of our older coins had many different dies used in the same year during the making of the coins.
Each die usually was different by sometimes minute differences and sometimes rather dramatic differences.
Those differences can range from , different sized date, spacing of letters, missing parts, like maybe some of the Pole on a Liberty Cap Cent and a myriad of other reasons, but the bottom line is, all coins of the same year are not created equal.
Now, with that said, If I keep this information statement short, let's just say, for Large Cents, two men, a Dr William Sheldon and Howard Newcomb, studied Large Cents and looked for all those Minuit difference and came a numbering system for each coin that was different in the same year.
In Dr Sheldon's case, he wrote a book called Penny Whimsy, which covers Large Cents from 1793 to 1814. He identified all the varieties for each year and numbered them in order, Thus the Sheldon numbering system which would be like the ones I posted, example 1796 Liberty Cap Large Cent, variety S-84.
Sheldon is credited with development of the Sheldon grading system using a scale from 1 to 70 points. Although it was originally intended only for use with large cents, this grading scale has become standard for use in grading all series of U.S. coins. Sheldon identified "collectible" varieties of early cents 1793-1814 and assigned numbers S-1 thru S-295.
Mr Newcomb, did the same thing with the later year Large Cents, 1816 to 1857 and his using the numbering system using his name with an example being a 1820 Coronet Large Cent N.12 variety.
His book is great, I got it for Christmas and although a bit pricey, if you get a good number of Large Cents, it makes for interesting winter time thing to do, ATTRIBUTE your Large Cents, meaning, what variety is that 1835 Large Cent you found.
Why is variety important, well, variety determines RARITY, we all know that mintage numbers help determine the value of a coin, besides the obvious, what condition it is in. Well, since most Large Cents, especially in the early years had many many varieties, that determines the Rarity value of that coin for that year.
So, by knowing the variety of a particular year makes a big difference in the value of the coin.
Here is a list of the different varieties of a 1793, Flowing Hair, Reverse Wreath type Large Cent.
As you can see, there are 9 varieties listed by Sheldon. Well, we all might think if we found a Large Cent that we would be rich. Not the case. I was just at a coin show today and I saw some 1793's listed for only 900 dollars in VF-20 condition and some in the 4000-8000 dollar range. The difference was not condition but VARIETY. A common Sheldon variety versus a Very Rare variety in the same condition is a huge amount of difference in value.
Sheldon 5 - Very Scarce
Sheldon 6 - Scarce
Sheldon 7 - Very Rare
Sheldon 8 - Common
Sheldon 9 - Common
Sheldon 10 - Very Scarce
Sheldon 11a - Rare
Sheldon NC-4 - 4 known
Sheldon NC-5 - Unique!
I hope someone gained some knowledge from my babbling here, one thing I like to stress, is, on old coppers, the corrosion kills value, but if you have a scarcer variety, it will still be in demand by collectors, due to supply and demand. It is important to identify your finds, just in case you do have a super rare variety or even one that is scarce.
Here is a website on Large Cents by a private individual that I look at sometimes for rough attributing, although the books are the best for doing so.
http://www.largecents.net/
Don