1793 Liberty Cap Left Half Cent

About This Coin

The 1793 Liberty Cap Left Half Cent is a United States cent from the Liberty Cap Left Half Cents 1793 series. The obverse features Liberty facing right with a Phrygian cap on a pole behind her head, symbolizing freedom, while the reverse displays a wreath enclosing ONE CENT and 1/100 of a dollar. Designed by Joseph Wright (1793), John Smith Gardner / Robert Scot (1794-1796). Struck in copper, weighing 6.74 grams, 22 mm in diameter, with a lettered: two hundred for a dollar edge. Produced at the Philadelphia Mint. The Liberty Cap design replaced the Wreath Cent in late 1793, introducing the Phrygian cap — a powerful symbol of liberty drawn from French Revolutionary iconography. Joseph Wright, who designed the 1793 version, died of yellow fever that same year. The 1793 Liberty Cap Cent is extremely rare. The 1794-1796 versions by Scot are more available but remain highly prized by type collectors.