A nice 1796 I picked up at the EAC convention. Weakly struck in the center of the reverse, but a nice dark consistent color with virtually no marks.

A nice 1796 I got out of Superior's Pre-Long Beach Auction in 2/2001. Looks like it make have been cleaned a bit, not sure; portrait and reverse highlights are slightly orange and grainy. This is a rare variety at R5.

This is one coin that just came about because of opportunity. Dan Holmes (collector extraordinaire) upgraded his S-83 and this is his leftover, which I purchased through an EAC buddy. Easily recognized by the date spacing "1 796", plus a die crack that connects the end of the pole to the bust. This specimen is a later die state which has an additional crack through the middle of the letters "ERTY" in LIBERTY. (I figure if this coin was good enough for Dan, it's more than good enough for me...)

A nice, lower grade coin that I purchased off eBay. One of the more common '96 cap varieties, but for the longest time particularly elusive for me for some reason.

I got this from one of Heritage's Internet-only auctions. Nice obverse detail. Coin was obviously cleaned long ago, but it has no other real problems and was priced right. A rare variety.

The very first large cent I ever bought (I was about 12 at the time) was a 1796 Liberty Cap for $20, which had the rims hammered on 4 sides to resemble an octagon. Recently, when I learned about varieties, I attributed the coin as a S-87. I sold that coin awhile back and finally have this coin to replace it with (a round version - hehe.)

A tough R4 variety. I purchased this with an internet bid from Superior. Strange story - after the auction ended, I saw that I had been outbid by $5. The next day, I got an invoice via email from Superior. Later that day, I got another email saying that I hadn't won. The coin arrived in the mail, so I'm assuming that I somehow ended up as the high bidder. Nice coin, but as T.L. (name withheld) might say in his New Jersey accent, "Eh... I paid too much for it..." I like it though.

I bought this off of eBay from a fellow EACer. These seem to be hard to come by in "nice". This one's not too bad; the "nice" ones go for a lot more!

Wow... this is one variety I figured I'd never own. At R5+, it's the toughest of the 1796 Liberty Cap varieties. This coin originally came out of a Stack's auction and I ended up purchasing it from an EAC buddy. As it turns out, there was an S-90 in the Ira and Larry Goldberg sale of 1/10/08, just days after I bought this one. The Goldberg coin was a lower grade than this one, and sold cheaply, so there's a good chance I would have ended up with that one if this one hadn't come along. Seems like certain varieties come in bunches, not to be seen again in a long time.

The reverse of this coin is "upset", or in medal alignment. The majority of S-90's come in this rotation. With the addition of this coin I lack S-85 and S-91 for a complete set of '96 caps!