Walter Breen's Encyclopedia of Early United States Cents

AU-55 Purchased in Europe in 1898 • Allison W. Jackman • Henry Chapman 6/1918:689 $215 • Elmer S. Sears • unknown • Oscar J. Pearl • Numismatic Gallery FPL, 1944: 6 $1,200 • T. James Clarke, 1947 in trade for 16 late date cents in proof from the Henry C. Hines Collection. Dr. William H Sheldon, 4/19/1972 • R. E. Naftzger, Jr.• Early American Coppers 4/1989: 16 $44,000 • Jeffrey Oliphant • Dr. Haig Koshkarian. State III. Reverse illustrated in Early American Cents and in Penny Whimsy.

AU-55 Frederic W. Geiss • B. Max Mehl #109, 2/1947:7 $647.50 • R. E. Naftzger, Jr. • A. Kosoff 4/1956: 8 $850 • Dorothy Nelson • Stack's 2/1976: 6 $4,500 • Joseph Kuehnert • Bowers and Ruddy Galleries FPL #32, 1979 $12,995.

AU-55 Matthew Adams Stickney • Henry Chapman 6/1907: 1473 $50 • Henry Chapman • Col. James W. Ellsworth, 3/1923 • Wayte Raymond, 4/1923 • George H. Clapp • ANS • Dr. William H. Sheldon, 1947 • T. James Clarke, 10/1954 • R. E. Naftzger, Jr. • New Netherlands Coin Co. 11/1973: 329 $4,250.

AU-55 Sylvester S. Crosby • Dr. Augustine Shurtleff, 2/27/1901 • Museum of Fine Arts (Boston) • 1976 ANA (Stack's): 223 $8,000 • unknown • Stack's, privately. Eric Streiner • Superior Galleries 5/1992: 422 $15,950. John B. MacDonald. Reverse illustrated on the Crosby-Levick Plate.

AU-55 Chas.Steigerwalt,3/30/1895. Dr. Thomas Hall, 9/7/1909 • Virgil M. Brand • New Netherlands Coin Co., privately • Dr. William H. Sheldon • Dorothy Paschal, 1972 • Donald G. Partrick • Stack's 5/1975: 555 $10,000.

AU-55 With faint planchet roughness around peripheral areas of the obverse. Heritage Rare Coin Galleries. Heritage Numismatic Auctions 2/1994: 6678 $13,750 • Heritage Rare Coin Galleries • Bowers and Merena 5/1994: 1147 $15,400 • Heritage Rare Coin Galleries • Heritage Numismatic Auctions 3/1995: 5008 $25,300 • Jay Parrino (The Mint), 4/16/1996 • W. M. "Jack" Wadlington.

AU-50 Frank H Masters, Jr. • Rare Coin Company of America 5/1971: 38 $4,400 • Jerry A. Bobbe • Del Bland • Don Quiggins • Mike Brownlee • Douglas Weaver Rare Coins FPL, #22, 3/1975 • Bowers and Ruddy Galleries 11/1976: 405 $6,500 • Fred Sweeney Rare Coins FPL, Coin World 12/8/1976 $8,900 • Kenneth M. Goldman.

AU-50 Richard B. Winsor • S. H. & H. Chapman 121 1895: 821 $42 • "Ink" • Thomas L. Elder, 9/18/1945 $330 • Leonard M. Holland • Pennypacker Auction Centre, 5/1959 $450 • Wilfred E. Helwig • Bowers and Ruddy Galleries 4/1979: 122 $10,500 • Joel Perlin (H. S. Perlin Co.)

AU-50 M. A. Brown • S. H. & H. Chapman 4/1897: 742 $51 • George H. Earle, Jr. • Henry Chapman 6/1912: 3361 $39 • S. H Chapman.

Obverse 10. Sprig of three trefoils and a cotton boll (?). The lowest lock is exceptionally heavy and has a ragged appearance, as if a die crack went along its lower edge toward the lower half of the tiny double curl. The second lock is forked, as on the next obverse and the middle lock is longest of all, longer than on any other die. End of the bust is thick and rounded at the tip, unlike all others. LI close with the L high.

Reverse G. Right stem and ribbon end are crowded between the final A and fraction bar. The left stem end is close to u. Base of the outer left trefoil is about in line with base of c, the inner trefoil slightly lower. N and T are close with T a little higher. ST are above adjacent A and TA are closely spaced. The fraction bar is high above 100, nearly touching the numerator. The unique survivor is too worn to permit a more complete description.

Die states. Apparently perfect dies. One of Clapp's axial light photographs (apparently of an electrotype) shows both sides as slightly bulged, though this is not apparent on examination of the coin.

Equivalents: Crosby-Levick 6D. Proskey 5. Doughty 5.Crosby 5-0. McGirk 2A. Sheldon NC-2. EAC 14. Encyclopedia 1643.

Rarity 8. Still unique after over 100 years of search.

Remarks: Discovered by Richard B. Winsor before 1869. Winsor called this the "Clover leaf" obverse. Edgar Adams (Numismatist, Feb. 1911, p. 53; May 1911, p. 184.) elaborated this to "Four-Leaf Clover Cent"; Doughty, the "Laurel Blossom"; Crosby, the "Cotton Leaf"; others, "Strawberry Leaf" or "Strawberry Sprig." Trefoils making up the sprig are as on the reverse. Today, the name "Strawberry Leaf" is used universally.

The style of this obverse is so different from all others of this design that some have believed it to be a pattern, and generations ago, others even questioned its Mint origin. This and the next obviously belong outside the previous sequence of varieties, but exactly where is disputable. Sheldon placed them between the Chains and his variety 5, as did McGirk and Crosby (which fails to explain why the obverse has small letters, or why both reverses are of a style nearer the later dies); others have conjectured that they might have comprised the odd 176 cents delivered at the end, after the Lettered Edge coins. (If so, why do all foul specimens have vine and bars edges? See comment at number 15). Its present position is a compromise in the absence of additional evidence.

What punches are clear enough for certainty leave no doubt of its Mint origin; and the edge ornamentation is as on the other genuine 1793 cents. Beware of electrotypes; these latter have plain edges with seams showing where obverse and reverse shells were joined. (Editor's note: An extensive study of the Strawberry Leaf varieties was prepared by John M. Kleeberg and presented at the November 9, 1996 Coinage of the Americas Conference. Kleeberg presented an exhaustive history of the four known examples including notes of discovery, a complete record of each coin, and his opinion that these are contemporary counterfeits. See John M. Kleeberg, "The Strawberry Leaf Cent A Reappraisal," Coinage of the Americas Conference, New York: American Numismatic Society, 1998.)

Condition Census:

FR-2 Taken out of circulation in 1845 by John Meader, a grocer in Providence, RI, who sold it prior to 12/21/ 1868 to Richard B. Winsor • S. H. & H. Chapman 12/1895: 823 $21 • Sylvester S. Crosby, 4/1896 • Dr. Thomas Hall, 9/7/1909 • Virgil M. Brand, 2/7/1941 • B. G. Johnson (St. Louis Stamp & Coin Co.), 9/12/1941 $750 • James Kelly, 1941 $1,250 • Charles M. Williams. Numismatic Gallery #68, 11/1950: 6 $1,025 • Floyd T. Starr • Stack's 6/1984: 6 $50,600 • R. E. Naftzger, Jr., 2/23/1992 • Eric Streiner s Jay Parrino (The Mint), 10/7/1995. Anthony Terranova, 10/16/1995 • Daniel W. Holmes, Jr. Obverse illustrated on the Crosby-Levick plate. Reverse illustrated in Crosby (1897), in Early American Cents, and in Penny Whimsy. Obverse and reverse illustrated in Noyes. 200.68 grains.

No other examples have been reported.