Welcome! With the generous assistance of Collectors Universe (PCGS), Heritage Auctions, Goldberg Auctions, and a number of private donors, presented to you is the long overdue, up-to-date attribution guide, containing the very best collection of full color, high resolution photographs of Early U.S. Large Cents, 1793-1814. All 295 Sheldon varieties plus 52 additional "NC" (so called non-collectable) die marriages are included in this 274 page guide.

The sole purpose of this attribution guide is to assist persons of every level of expertise, from beginner to expert, in quickly and easily identifying the Sheldon variety of the coin that you have. Although this guide isn't directed specifically toward beginners, this guide is written in plain English, and is written in a manner that is straight forward and intuitive, making it a beacon of opportunity for anyone who has wanted to "get into" Large Cents.

Although attributing Large Cents may seem like a complicated business, it doesn't have to be. At first, it may seem overwhelming, but you will find that as you become a more advanced variety attributer, you will come to rely more and more on direct visual observation, rather than text descriptions. You will begin to recognize die marriages the same way that you recognize a person's face. In short, humans are visual learners - learn to recognize a variety by what you see instead of by text descriptions.

The descriptions you will find on each page are pointers which are related to specifics of that particular die variety, which may be overlooked at a glance. It is assumed that you already know to verify such things as the position and spacing of LIBERTY and the date, the leaf positions on the reverse, and dentil alignments relative to the letters below the dentils. Essentially, you are looking to make a visual overlay in your mind of your coin and the pictures on the page of the book to ensure that everything aligns correctly - if LIBERTY is too high or low, is not spaced the same, the date is spaced differently, the leaf positions don't match precisely, or the dentil alignments are off, you can rule that variety out and keep moving to the next. In other words, does the cookie match the cutter?

Within this book, you will find a smaller number of varieties pictured in which the obverse and reverse do not look like the same coin. This is simply because a better photo was available from a different die marriage that shares the same obverse or reverse die, and the pictures were put together as a "Frankenstein" coin. This will be especially helpful on some of the rare varieties, of which typically only poor quality photos have been available in the past.

Prior to the actual variety attribution pages, you will find details on major varieties by year, as well as a "Crack Finder" page for different years. The Crack Finder is separated into two categories by utilizing a color coded scheme: Die cracks or other features found only on common or slightly scarce marriages (generally R4 and lower) will be highlighted in GREEN or YELLOW, whereas die cracks or other features found on rare to very rare marriages (generally R5 and higher, or otherwise more important) will be highlighted in RED or BLUE. Some die cracks or features are associated with both common and rare die marriages, in which case, you will see a dashed, multi-colored line. Note that there is no difference in green -vs- yellow or red -vs- blue, as the different colors within both rarity level categories are only used to help distinguish one die crack from another on the photo. The colored drawn lines should essentially be considered a caricature, and the die crack may be thicker or thinner, lighter or heavier, or less or more advanced, based on the particular die crack, as well as the die state.

While this may seem like a jumbled and confusing mess at first, take the author's word for it; once you begin to look at different coins and compare them to the Crack Finder, it will become clear just how useful this feature is. If most any coin has a die crack, you should be able to attribute it lightning fast. Use it, and use it often.

Do note that not every year is included in this "crack finding" scheme; the years excluded quite simply do not need any further help as they are either easy to attribute, or there are only a small number of marriages, making it simpler to just turn directly to the attribution pages. The complex years, such as 1794, are most certainly all included. Lastly, for easier viewing, on the actual attribution pages, die cracks are only drawn in green, regardless of rarity.

Price: $125. PayPal link HERE.

Email Robert: EACbookUSA@hotmail.com