Sunday, October 19, 2025

The Early Large Cents

In 1792, the U.S. passed an act for establishing a mint. Several different patterns were made and most of their origins not clearly understood. The next year, the mint began. They started by making cents and half cents. They started by making chain cents but soon the public began complaining about the design and how disgraceful Liberty looked. Most people still dislike the design to this day. Today these coins command high prices even for low grade examples.

 Soon the U.S. Mint changed the design so that the reverse had a wreath and they modified the obverse design. There are about 11 different varieties but several different ones due to rarity prove elusive to collectors trying to obtain them. One is the strawberry leaf which shows a sprig from a strawberry plant below Liberty. While all show a leaf this one is special because of the strawberry. There are only three known and in the beginning of the 20th century, the wealthy brewer Virgil Brand obtained 2/3 of the existent examples in his massive coin hoard.

The design was not appropriate due to cost saving measures as the design made it difficult to fully strike up so soon they changed the design to the best design in all of U.S. coining history. It showed a representation of lady liberty with a liberty cap. There is several different varieties of this year that are noteworthy. They include the 1794 Starred reverse cent. The fascinating thing about this is 94 stars show up on the reverse. It is unknown why they appear. The other interesting variety is the Jefferson head cent. John Harper, a mechanic invited the U.S. Mint officials to come and see some ways to improve the coinage. He made several dies to use to demonstrate. The methods were viewed and Harper kept the dies. Several years later the mint seized the dies so Harper could not counterfeit the cents. There are two different types. One of them dies not have edge lettering. Harper probably used this in his demonstration for conveniences sake and the other type has edge lettering. After the dies were seized from Harper the mint probably used the dies to make coins because they were not going to waste perfectly useable dies.

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