A Guide Book of Half Cents and Large Cents: 2 (The Official Red Book)

As someone who has re-entered the hobby of coin collecting in the past couple of years, I find this book to be absolutely ESSENTIAL to those interested in collecting half-cents or large cents. My preference at the moment is Large Cent collection. This book provides hundreds of color images, showing individual die designations and how to distinguish them from each other. In addition, there are almost 200 pages that go into detail about the creation and evolution of these 2 types of coins. The author has done an amazing job of citing newspaper articles and other materials going back to the 1790s, which I find to be fascinating and valuable foundational material to understanding these coins. My preference has always been to spend money on coins, not books about coins, but I could not be happier with my decision to purchase this book. Strongly recommend.

Just a great all around book by Q. David Bowers. I have been collecting coins for over 50 years and have most of Dave's books. Gold and Silver coins make up most of my collection, but I have been buying some Large Cents lately. Early Copper is very interesting with all the different die varieties. The first half of the book focuses on the mint and the people who were employed there. Hoards are covered. Dave also gives credit in this book to the people who have studied Early Copper. Lot's of nice bits of information that only Dave can put into words and he is probably the only living person that knows these things. As Dave said in his Type Coin book: Large Cents are what American Numismatics is all about.

Lots of history. Covers the coins in detail. I only rate it 4 stars as the pics are too small. It shows two different die varieties on each page with front and back pic. The pics are too small. The book would be enhanced by one die variety on each page and double the size of the pics.

good historical read concerning large and half cents.

This book is very good for those just getting into Half and Larger Cent varieties, as the specialized books for these are either rather expensive or out of print. Note, however, that the section covering the dates is also printed in A Guidebook of United States Coins, Delux edition. Ironically, the photos in the Delux edition are larger than in the separate Half Cents and Large Cents book. However, the separate book has over a hundred pages of historical and background material not in the Delux edition. Since I have all the other books in the Official Red Book series ( this is #19), I went ahead and bought it sight unseen, because I figured out in advance that the separate book had many pages of additional material that does not make you feel that you are buying a duplicate book. As Large Cent and Half Cent collecting began, for the most part, after the series ended in 1857, the background material gives you a little history of the whole field of coin collecting. For example, in the 20th Century, the work by Dr. Shelton invented the numerical scale for condition that is now used across the board for all coins. Large Cents have probably been studied as a specialty more than any other series, and as a result, have far more identified varieties than any other series. Bowers promotes the Early American Coppers Club which I also highly recommend even if you are not into varieties. I don't collect varieties myself, but it is fun learning how to identify what you have as a representative year coin.