Ellsworth’s Early Cents
On January 9 at the 70th Annual FUN Convention hosted by the Florida United Numismatists, Heritage Auctions will conduct the sale of ANA Past President Colonel Steven K. Ellsworth’s collection of U.S. large cents. The special assemblage includes every one of the Sheldon number varieties from 1796 through 1814.
“This collection starts with the Draped Bust coins, and many of the coins are the finest known, or at least one of the finest known examples,” says Greg Rohan, president of Heritage Auctions.
A longtime numismatist, Ellsworth is particularly knowledgeable about early large cent varieties. “These one-cent coins are what people used to buy bread, horseshoes, and other things. If you had a silver dollar or a $2.50 gold piece, you were carrying a lot of money. But large cents were spent on everything, and some of these coins saw thousands of uses,” he says. “In some cases, the finest-known example of a certain variety may be AG [About Good]-3 or G [Good]-4. Anything XF [Extremely Fine] or over can be exceedingly rare.”
Of the 232 lots, some highlights include:
- 1799 Sheldon (S)-189, Rarity (R)2, XF-45 PCGS, CAC Approved
- 1801 S-217, R6+, About Uncirculated (AU)-58 PCGS
- 1798 S-178, R5+, Style II Hair, Reverse of 1795, Very Fine (VF)-35 PCGS
- 1803 S-264, R4+, Large Date, Small Fraction, VF-20 PCGS
- 1810 S-285, R2, Mint State (MS)-66 Red & Brown PCGS
A full preview of the coins will be available at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando on January 6-9. For more information and to bid, visit Heritage Auctions’ website.