Lot 485
1793 Flowing Hair Cent. Chain reverse, "AMERICA" in legend. PCGS graded VF-35 Brown. Close date, no periods. Easily recognized variety inasmuch as it has a "leaning R" in LIBERTY. The surface is pleasing dark brown to steel color, with a few wispy hairlines, two tiny rim bruises on the obverse (one is at 9 o'clock, while the other is below the date). The centers are extremely well struck for this key first year of issue, and display outstanding hair on Liberty as well as strong interlinked chain elements on the reverse. Only 36,103 large cents were made of the Chain type, and these tended to get heavily abraded in circulation due to the soft copper (PCGS # 1341) .
The first reverse die for 1793 had the word "AMERI" instead of "AMERICA" because it was thought more important to have a balanced reverse legend than to have the name spelled out. The idea was quickly dropped once mint personnel realized that the name of the country should not be abbreviated.
The first cents, as all coins struck at the Mint through the early days of 1795, were hand-fed into the press by a young boy; there was as yet no automatic feeding mechanism triggered by the operation of the screw press. Only one hand-operated press was used for the Chain cent coinage in 1793, but by early in 1794 two presses were occasionally in operation at the same time, hence the increased production that year versus 1793.
Estimated Value $30,000 - 38,000.
|
| |
| Realized $43,700 |
