1805 Draped Bust Large Cent S-269 Obverse Die Clash

Description

Cross-referenced as Sheldon S-269 in the definitive Early American Cents classification system, this 1805 Draped Bust Large Cent displays a die clash on the obverse where elements of the reverse wreath design have been transferred onto the portrait side of the coin. Specifically, leaves from the wreath are visible between the bust and chin and in front of Liberty\'s face — areas of relatively open field on the obverse where the incuse reverse design elements, pressed into the obverse die during the unprotected die-to-die contact, created raised impressions on subsequently struck coins. A die clash occurs when the obverse and reverse dies strike each other without a planchet between them, an event that can happen when the coin feed mechanism fails to deliver a blank between successive strikes. The Draped Bust Large Cent was designed by Robert Scot, Chief Engraver of the United States Mint, after a portrait attributed to Gilbert Stuart. Struck at the Philadelphia Mint — the only operating mint facility during this early Federal period — the 1805 large cent was produced in pure copper with an approximate weight of 10.89 grams and a diameter of 29 mm. The 1805 date had a mintage of 941,116 pieces, placing it among the lower-mintage years in the Draped Bust series that ran from 1796 through 1807. The Sheldon variety numbering system, developed by William Sheldon in his 1949 reference work "Early American Cents," assigns unique numbers to each die marriage within the early large cent series, and S-269 designates this specific obverse-reverse die combination. Die clashes on early copper coinage document manufacturing incidents at the nascent Philadelphia Mint, where hand-operated screw presses and manual planchet feeding made such events relatively common.

Attribution History

• Discovered by NumisDexDealer
• S-269