1798 Draped Bust Cent - 1798/7 Overdate

Coin Details

Auction Record

Description

This is the 1798/7 overdate variety of the 1798 Draped Bust Cent. Dies were expensive, and a serviceable die left over at the end of a year was often kept and re-dated rather than destroyed: the new digits were punched directly over the old ones. The earlier date survives underneath wherever its strokes fall outside the digits punched over it, which is why an overdate is read from the shapes that do not belong to the date as printed. The effect is in the die, so every coin struck from it carries the same remnant in the same position. Part of the Draped Bust Cents 1796-1807 series, the 1798 Draped Bust Cent - 1798/7 Overdate is a cent from the Philadelphia Mint. The 1798 Draped Bust Cent issue as a whole had a mintage of 1,841,745; how many coins carry this variety is unknown. That figure counts coins dated 1798: the Mint delivered 979,700 cents in calendar 1798, and about 862,045 more dated 1798 followed in 1799. The obverse features Liberty facing right with draped bust and ribbon-bound hair, designed after a Gilbert Stuart portrait and the reverse displays a wreath enclosing ONE CENT and fraction 1/100. Produced during the earliest years of the United States Mint, when the young republic was establishing its monetary system and coinage traditions. Struck in copper, weighing 10.89 grams, 28 mm in diameter, with a plain edge. Cataloged as PCGS #1440.