Matron Head Coronet Head Cents 1816-1835

During the War of 1812 the Mint could not get the ready-made copper blanks it bought from Matthew Boulton in England. The last shipment before the war reached Philadelphia in April 1812, and the final cents struck on it were delivered in October 1814. New blanks arrived in the fall of 1815, but Bill Eckberg's research suggests the 465,500 cents made from them were still dated 1814. No large cent bears the date 1815, the only gap between 1793 and 1857.

The next delivery of cents came on December 20, 1816, with a new design. Liberty now faced left with a coronet inscribed LIBERTY, ringed by stars. Collectors call it the Matron Head, or the Coronet type. Robert Scot, the chief engraver, is usually given the credit, though the historian R. W. Julian believes John Reich made it.

As with earlier cents, the mintage figures count coins delivered in a calendar year, whatever date the dies carried. No cents at all were recorded for 1823, the 1827 total may include coins dated 1826, and so few dies are known for 1832 that some of that year's cents must carry other dates.

Many Mint State cents of 1816 to 1820 that survive today come from the Randall Hoard, a group of new cents that John Swan Randall offered around 1869. The usual story places it in a keg under a Georgia railroad platform, but in an 1870 letter Randall wrote only that he bought the coins from a Georgia merchant. The hoard's 1818 N-10 and 1820 N-13 cents are easy to spot by a ring of die cracks running through the stars and the date.

The Mint also struck small numbers of proofs for collectors. The bronzed proofs of 1829 may have been made for the laying of the cornerstone of the new Mint building that year, and many 1831 proofs were polished on the obverse only.

Christian Gobrecht joined the Mint as second engraver in 1835, while Chief Engraver William Kneass was disabled by a stroke. Partway through 1835 a slimmer portrait, the Head of 1836, replaced the old one. Those coins form the Modified Matron Head series, which ran until the Braided Hair cent of 1839.

Obverse. Liberty faces left, wearing a coronet inscribed LIBERTY. Stars circle the border, normally 13, and the date is below.

Reverse. ONE CENT inside a wreath, with UNITED STATES OF AMERICA around it.

Mint mark. None. Every large cent was struck at the Philadelphia Mint.

Letter sizes, 1829 to 1834. The reverse lettering changed size over these years. Large Letters dies, the style of the 1820s, were used alongside a new Medium Letters style, which some catalogs call Small Letters. Cents dated 1833 all have Medium Letters, but one 1834 die pair, N-6, went back to Large Letters.

1834 and 1835. The 8 in the date, the stars and the reverse letters each come in more than one size, and the cents are named by the combination, such as Large 8, Small Stars, Medium Letters.

Newcomb numbers. Each pairing of dies has an N-number from Howard R. Newcomb's United States Copper Cents 1816-1857 (1944), such as N-16. Specialists collect the series by these numbers.

• 1817 15 Stars: one obverse, N-16, has 15 stars in place of 13. The stars were crowded when punched, and two more were added to fill the gap. Other 1817 cents have the normal 13 stars.
• 1819/8: N-1 and N-2 are both overdates with a Large Date. The 8 under the 9 is plain on N-1 but hard to see on N-2, which is listed as the 1819/(8) Large Date. All other 1819 dies have the Small Date.
• 1820/19: three overdates. On N-1, a Large Date die, only a 1 shows under the 0, because the last digit had been left off when the die was made. N-2 and N-3 have the Small Date and show two earlier digits. Other 1820 cents come with a Large Date or a Small Date.
• 1823 and 1823/2: only two die pairs, the normal date (N-2) and the overdate (N-1). No mintage was recorded for 1823, and NGC thinks the coins were struck in 1824.
• 1823 restrike: made outside the Mint around 1860 or later from two discarded, rusted dies, the obverse of 1823 N-2 and a reverse of 1813. A few were struck in silver.
• 1824/2: a single overdated obverse, used with two reverses (N-1 and N-5).
• 1826/5: N-8 only. The 5 is clear on early die states and fades into what looks like die damage on later ones, and some specialists doubt it is an overdate at all.
• 1828 date sizes: every 1828 die has the Large Narrow Date except N-10, the Small Wide Date.
• Large Letters, 1829 to 1832: 1829, 1830, 1831 and 1832 come with either letter size. In 1830 only N-6 has the Medium Letters, and in 1832 only N-3 has the Large Letters.
• 1834: N-1 and N-2 are the Small 8 (search); others combine a Large 8 with small stars or large stars. N-6 is the only business strike with the Large Letters reverse; a proof-only pair, N-7, also has it.
• 1835: the old portrait comes with a Large 8 and Large Stars or a Small 8 and Small Stars. The rest of the year's cents have Gobrecht's Head of 1836.
• 1829 bronzed proofs: N-6 proofs struck on blanks coated with bronzing powder to give them an even brown finish.

• Composition: copper. The Mint's cents contain no silver; the only silver pieces are the 1823 restrikes made outside the Mint.
• Weight: 10.89 grams
• Diameter: about 28 mm. PCGS lists 28.00 mm and NGC 28 to 29 mm; the nominal size was 1 1/8 inches (28.57 mm).
• Edge: plain