The Coronet large cent was a type of

large cent The United States large cent was a coin with a face value of 1/100 of a United States dollar. Its nominal diameter was 1 inch (28.57 mm). The first official mintage of the large cent was in 1793, and its production continued until 1857, whe ...

issued by the

United States Mint The United States Mint is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury responsible for producing coinage for the United States to conduct its trade and commerce, as well as controlling the movement of bullion. It does not produce paper money; tha ...

at the

Philadelphia Mint The Philadelphia Mint in Philadelphia was created from the need to establish a national identity and the needs of commerce in the United States. This led the Founding Fathers of the United States to make an establishment of a continental national ...

from 1816 until 1839. There are two similar designs of the Coronet large cent, the Matron Head and the Braided Hair, the latter with a slightly altered profile. This was the last large cent produced by the mint, being replaced by the reduced diameter

Flying Eagle cent The Flying Eagle cent is a one-cent piece struck by the Mint of the United States as a pattern coin in 1856 and for circulation in 1857 and 1858. The coin was designed by Mint Chief Engraver James B. Longacre, with the eagle in flight based o ...

in 1857.

History

During the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It be ...

, a

trade embargo Economic sanctions are commercial and financial penalties applied by one or more countries against a targeted self-governing state, group, or individual. Economic sanctions are not necessarily imposed because of economic circumstances—they ...

was imposed between the United States and

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

, which had supplied the US Mint with copper

planchet A planchet is a round metal disk that is ready to be struck as a coin. An older word for planchet is flan. They are also referred to as blanks. History The preparation of the flan or planchet has varied over the years. In ancient times, the f ...

s. The mint's supply was exhausted in 1814, and no

Classic Head The Classic Head was a coin design issued by the United States Mint in the early 19th century. It was introduced for copper coinage in 1808 by engraver John Reich and later redesigned and improved by Chief Engraver William Kneass. Dates minted ...

cents were produced dated 1815. It has often been written that no cents at all were struck that year, but coinage did resume in December of 1815 using an 1814 or 1816-dated die. Once the embargo was lifted and the mint received new planchets, large cent production resumed, this time with a new design of the goddess Liberty by Robert Scot. The design change was made because the Classic Head cents received much criticism. In 1823, only proof cents were produced during the calendar year, all others were made in 1824 using back-dated dies. The new cents, known as Matron Head cents, were not much better, however, and numismatist

Walter H. Breen Walter Henry Breen Jr. (September 5, 1928 – April 27, 1993) was an American numismatist, writer, and convicted child sex offender; as well as the husband of author Marion Zimmer Bradley. He was known among coin collectors for writing ''Wa ...

called the design "a spectacularly ugly head of Ms. Liberty". In 1836,

Christian Gobrecht Christian Gobrecht (December 23, 1785 – July 23, 1844) was the third Chief Engraver of the United States Mint from 1840 until his death in 1844. He was responsible for designing the famous " Seated Liberty" designs, which were in turn the di ...

made several modifications to the design, giving the bust of Liberty a younger appearance. Gobrecht made further changes in 1839, creating the "Petite Head" Braided Hair cent. In 1843, the bust was enlarged and tilted upward, this design is known as the "Mature Head".

Varieties

Matron Head varieties

Braided Hair varieties

Replacement

The price of copper rose dramatically in the late-1840s, and the cost of producing large cents rose as a result. The US Mint started seeking an alternative that used less copper. The first attempt was to

perforate A perforation is a small hole in a thin material or web. There is usually more than one perforation in an organized fashion, where all of the holes collectively are called a ''perforation''. The process of creating perforations is called perfor ...

the coin, resulting in the ring cents of 1850 and 1851. The standard composition of these coins was billon, an alloy of 90% copper and 10% silver. This coin was not placed into production as it was expensive to extract the silver from the alloy, and the coins were difficult to eject from the dies. Additionally, a drop in the price of copper temporarily eliminated the need to replace the large cent. The price of copper rose again in the mid-1850s, and the mint again looked for an alternative cent. This time, the cent was reduced in size, only a little larger than a dime. Patterns for the

were struck in 1854, and proved to be a suitable replacement for the large cent. The small cent was approved for production in 1856, and several thousand 1856 Flying Eagle cents were sold to collectors. Full-scale production commenced in mid-1857, replacing the large cent last struck earlier that year. In 1868, eleven years after the last large cent was produced, a mint employee struck around a dozen and a half large cents dated 1868. These coins were struck in both copper and nickel planchets. Also produced that year were about 2 dozen dime patterns were minted in nickel with the obverse die of the 1868 large cent, plus an additional 2 dozen pieces struck in copper.

References