BY JOSHUA MCMORROW-HERNANDEZ, EDITOR
The 225th anniversary of the United States Mint in 2017 ushered in many surprise “gifts” for coin collectors. These include the first appearance of Philadelphia’s “P” mintmark on the one-cent denomination and the 2017 American Liberty 225th Anniversary Gold Coin, bearing the first-ever depiction on a coin of Miss Liberty with distinctly African American features. While the fervor over the Mint’s 225th anniversary has settled since 2017, there is a 225th anniversary of a different kind that numismatists are observing during the spring of 2018.
It was in early 1793 that the nation’s first federally authorized coins intended for widespread circulation were struck. The entire production of official United States Mint coinage in 1793 was composed of copper coins, including the half cent and one-cent (or “large cent”) coins. The first among these was the Flowing Hair large cent with Chain reverse, a design type attributed to Chief Coiner Henry Voigt.
Numismatic scholars determine the first large cents were struck from February 27 to March 12, 1793, with a production total of 36,103 pieces. The initial delivery of these large cents was made on March 1 and consisted of 11,178 cents totaling $111.78. This first batch included two varieties of large cents, including so-called “AMERI.” reverse, which reads “UNITED STATES of AMERI.” and the “AMERICA” reverse, with the nation’s name spelled out in its entirety.
“It is widely believed that the 1793 with AMERI. reverse was the first Chain cent to be struck,” says Shawn Yancey, proprietor of EarlyCopperCoins.Com and longtime member of the Early American Coppers organization. “Therefore, [the AMERI. reverse] has a lot of recognition not only as the first large cent, but it also has the distinction of having that abbreviated reverse. All of the other Chain cent varieties have the reverse corrected to ‘AMERICA.’”
The Chain cent was panned by the press. In particular, the bust of Miss Liberty was mocked as looking “in a fright,” while the Chain reverse, meant to symbolize national solidarity in the new Union, was derided as representing slavery. Copper planchets were exhausted before March 1793 came to a close, and Mint Director David Rittenhouse quickly approved of a new reverse design attributed to Adam Eckfeldt incorporating a wreath. The first Flowing Hair Wreath large cents were struck in April 1793. A total of 63,353 Wreath cents were coined from April to July 1793, before the obverse was redesigned with the Liberty Cap motif attributed to Joseph Wright. This design went into production in September 1793, and 11,056 Liberty Cap cents carrying the “1793” date were coined.
Jack Beymer has handled countless large cents and other early copper coins since becoming a coin dealer in 1964. He says all three major types of 1793 cents, including the Chain, Wreath, and Liberty Cap versions, are popular with collectors. “Among the three separate designs, the Chain and Liberty Cap designs being the rarest, the Wreath is the commonest of the three.”
While 1793 was an eventful, some could argue troubled, year for large cents, production went much more smoothly for the second denomination to roll of the presses of the Philadelphia Mint: half cents. The smallest denomination United States coin ever struck, the half cent was initially produced from July through September 1793, with all first-year examples carrying a Liberty Cap Head Facing Left design credited to Henry Voigt. Only 35,334 were struck, and while all 1793 half cents carry the same basic obverse and reverse, numismatists have identified four varieties to date.
Yancey says the 1793 half cent has several important distinctions, chief among these that they are the only other coin, aside from the large cent, struck by the United States Mint in 1793. “Additionally, the Liberty Cap Head Facing Left design was used for one year, so that makes them coveted not just for the date but also for the one-year design type.”