Liberty Cap Right Half Cents 1794-1797

When half cent coinage resumed in 1794, Liberty was turned to face right. NGC says Robert Scot made the new hubs from Joseph Wright's design; CoinWeek describes the change as Scot adapting the 1793 design. The 1794 head is large and in high relief, and NGC divides the year's nine die pairings into a Normal Head group and a High Relief Head group.

In 1795 the portrait was redone smaller and in lower relief, which made the dies last longer. CoinWeek credits the change to the assistant engraver John Smith Gardner; NGC calls Gardner's part likely but not provable.

The price of copper also forced a change of weight. An act of March 3, 1795 let the President reduce the copper coins, and Washington's proclamation cut the half cent from 104 to 84 grains with effect from December 27, 1795. The thinner blanks could not take the edge lettering TWO HUNDRED FOR A DOLLAR, so later coins have a plain edge. Copper was hard to come by, and NGC records half cents struck on blanks cut down from spoiled cent planchets or from tokens bought from the New York firm of Talbot, Allum & Lee; traces of the earlier design sometimes show.

Only 1,390 half cents were delivered for 1796. No dies were dated 1798 or 1799, and according to NGC the 1797 dies were still in use as late as 1800, when the Draped Bust design took over.

Obverse. Liberty faces right, her hair flowing, with a liberty cap on a pole behind her. LIBERTY is above and the date below.

Reverse. HALF CENT inside a wreath, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA around it, and the fraction 1/200 below.

Head. The 1794 head is larger and in higher relief than the small head used from 1795 to 1797.

Edge. Lettered TWO HUNDRED FOR A DOLLAR on the 104-grain coins of 1794 and 1795; plain on the 84-grain coins from the end of 1795; lettered again on one thick 1797 variety; and gripped, with a series of short cuts, on another 1797 variety.

Mint mark. None. All half cents were struck at Philadelphia.

Cohen numbers. Die pairings are numbered in Roger S. Cohen Jr.'s American Half Cents, with a letter added when one pairing comes on different edges, as in 1797 C-3a, C-3b and C-3c.

• 1794: 81,600 struck. Collectors divide the year into the Low Relief (Normal) Head, six pairings found with large or small edge letters, and the High Relief Head, three pairings with small letters. See also the 1794 type page.
• 1795 lettered edge: two pairings, the normal date and the Punctuated Date, whose die has a comma-like flaw between the 1 and the 7. PCGS also lists a lettered-edge No Pole.
• 1795 plain edge: six pairings, three with the Punctuated Date and two No Pole, on which the pole was polished away when the die was lapped. NGC says most plain-edge 1795s were struck in 1796 and 1797. The usual figure for 1795 is 139,690; NGC and USA Coin Book split it into 25,600 lettered and 109,000 plain.
• 1796: two obverses with one reverse. On the No Pole die (C-1) the pole was left out, and the die shows a crack across Liberty's head; the With Pole (C-2) has a faintly doubled 9. The 1,390 figure covers both. The Edwards copies are later private imitations, not Mint coins.
• 1797: three pairings, put at 127,840 though NGC calls the figure uncertain. The 1 above 1 (C-1) has a second 1 punched above the first. The Low Head pairing, C-3, with the bust set low from off-center hubbing, comes with a plain edge, a lettered edge on thick cut-down cent stock, and a gripped edge. See also the 1797 plain edge.

• Composition: copper. Liberty Cap half cents contain no silver.
• Weight: 6.74 grams (104 grains) for 1794 and the lettered-edge 1795s; 5.44 grams (84 grains) for the plain-edge coins from late 1795. Coins struck on cut-down stock are thicker than normal.
• Edge: plain, gripped, or lettered with TWO HUNDRED FOR A DOLLAR, as above
• Diameter: 23.5 mm