The Chain cent drew complaints almost as soon as it appeared, and Mint Director David Rittenhouse answered with a new design. The Wreath cent kept the idea of a Liberty head with flowing hair, now in higher relief, and replaced the chain with a wreath around ONE CENT. Under Liberty's bust, above the date, it added a small sprig of leaves, a device found on no other United States coin.
Who cut the dies is not settled. Joseph Wright and Robert Scot had not yet been hired. Walter Breen thought the work was shared by the engraver known only as Birch and by Adam Eckfeldt; R. W. Julian credited the chief coiner, Henry Voigt, with some help from Eckfeldt.
Coinage began on April 4, 1793. On April 19 the Mint's rolling mills broke down and the supply of blanks ran out, and striking did not resume until summer. Between April 9 and July 17 Voigt delivered 63,353 Wreath cents in nine batches. The first coins had the vine and bars edge of the Chain cents; later in the run the Mint switched to an edge lettered ONE HUNDRED FOR A DOLLAR. During the summer Joseph Wright joined the Mint as engraver, and his Liberty Cap design ended the Wreath type within months.
The plant in the wreath has puzzled collectors for more than a century. Breen read it as a composite: leaves like laurel, three-part leaves that may stand for cotton, and sprays of berries or florets.
