Stack's Bowers Galleries offered Part III of The Twin Leaf Collection of United States Large Cents on Nov. 3 as part of its Baltimore Expo auctions.

The U.S. Mint started minting large cents for circulation in 1793 with three design types coined that year. Production would stop when no 1815-dated cents were struck and resume in 1816. Coronet cents dated between 1816 and 1839 are considered “Middle Date” while those from 1840 to 1857 are “Late Date.”

The November offering of 233 lots consisted of the collector’s duplicates, but there were many notable coins even in these extras. Here is one of three we're profiling in this week's Market Analysis.

The Lot:

1835 Coronet Cent, Extremely Fine 40

The Price:

$3,525

The Story:

As the auction’s introduction notes, early American copper collectors are passionate, and among all series, “large cents in particular are frequently studied in great detail by their most serious audience.”

Middle Date Coronet cent: John D. Wright, cataloger extraordinarie of the large cents of 1816 to 1839, writes that the Middle Dates offer "more bang-for-the-buck than the ones either before (too many bucks) or after (not enough bang)." How much are Coronet cents worth?

Advanced large cent collectors look for die pairings listed by Dr. William H. Sheldon in Penny Whimsy or Howard Rounds Newcomb in United States Copper Cents, 1816–1857, but they also study the die states within these varieties that track how coining dies change over time.

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A Professional Coin Grading Service Extremely Fine 40 1835 Coronet cent of the Small 8, Small Stars variety, Newcomb 11, brought $3,525. It is listed in the condition census for the variety, meaning that it is among the finest known examples, though bested by a finer example that was offered in the first auction of The Twin Leaf Collection.

A crack through the bases of the 1835 in the date can be seen between the 3 and 5, helping identify the Die State B/B (as recorded by Bill Noyes). The surfaces are described as “Attractive light olive brown with faint striations on the obverse and more intense ones on the reverse. Smooth and glossy with very few marks of any consequence.”

Keep reading this Twin Leaf Collection Market Analysis:

Why is this recently sold 1846 Coronet cent considered ‘controversial’?: Collectors love Mint State copper coins to have as much original Mint red color as possible.

This 1818 Coronet cent one of Twin Leaf Collection’s many great options for new collectors: Many of the coins in the offering sold for less than $500, making the collection a great place for a collector to start.