1839 Modified Matron Head Coronet Head Cent - 9/6

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Description

This is the 1839/6 overdate variety of the 1839 Modified Matron Head Coronet Head 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. Any mintage given below counts the entire issue for this date and mint, not this variety: a variety comes from one die or a few, and how many coins they struck was never separately recorded. Part of the Modified Matron Head Coronet Head Cents 1835-1839 series, the 1839 Modified Matron Head Coronet Head Cent - 9/6 is a cent from the Philadelphia Mint. The 1839 Modified Matron Head Coronet Head Cent issue as a whole had a mintage of 3.1 million; how many coins carry this variety is unknown. The obverse features Liberty facing left wearing a hair ribbon inscribed LIBERTY, with a coronet of stars around her head and the reverse displays a wreath enclosing ONE CENT. Minted during the age of Jacksonian democracy; Congress authorized branch mints at Charlotte, Dahlonega and New Orleans in 1835, and they opened in 1838. Struck in copper, weighing 10.89 grams, 28 mm in diameter, with a plain edge. Cataloged as PCGS #1756.