Walter Breen's Encyclopedia of Early United States Cents

Obverse 4. Periods after LIBERTY and date. The closest date and LIBERTY of the design. L and B are each too low while L and I nearly touch. The R was apparently corrected from a B (a condition first mentioned by Dr. Thomas Hall); on later die states the traces of this die blunder fade out.

Reverse B.

Die states: 1. Faint crack from the rim to hair often not noticed, hidden by a faint bulge. Claimed to exist from perfect dies, but I have seen none. Even the prooflike presentation piece known as "The Coin!" shows this crack. ("The Coin" is a nickname for the Mickley specimen listed as finest known in the Condition Census. The editor has yet to determine the origin of this nickname.) Reverse die was repolished, showing fewer traces of the roughness below the letters.

II. The first crack is plainer and extends into the hair. Another crack is present from the rim behind lower locks, pointing to the date. This varies from very light to heavy. A third crack develops through the bases of RTY to the period.

III. A small rim break where the first two cracks come together eventually becoming heavy. The crack through RTY gradually extends through the bases of BER, through I, and faintly to the rim. Wavy raised lines from tip of nose before the mouth and chin, and below neck, somewhat like those on obverse 3.

Equivalents: Crosby-Levick 3B. Frossard 2. Proskey 4.Doughty 4. Crosby 4-C. McGirk 1F. Sheldon 4. EAC 5. Encyclopedia 1636.

High Rarity 3.

Remarks: On this obverse die, the hair is so differently treated from the rest as to suggest a different engraver. Perhaps this was a sample die by Joseph Wright leading to the engravership. Wright's 1792 pattern quarter obverse has a similarly soft treatment of the hair, and a period after UBERTY. But if Wright did this, why is there no record of his part-time employment before appointment as engraver? (Harry Salyards, in a letter to the editor dated September 22, 1996, suggested the possibility that this obverse was executed by the engraver of the Wreath cents. ''The treatment of the hair at the brow and temple is more like that on several of the Wreath cent dies than either the strange receding hairlines of the other Chain cents, or Wright's 'boundry wave' on the Liberty Caps.")

Probably over 8,800 struck from the March 8 through March 12 deliveries.

Adm. Worthington S. Bitler had one with a plain edge, the explanation as in variety 2. Beware of electrotypes. See "Oops!" chapter.

Discoverer uncertain: Mickley may receive credit, or Cogan in 1858, or perhaps Dickeson.

Condition Census:
MS-63 Joseph J. Mickley • W. Elliot Woodward • W. Elliot Woodward, 10th Semi-Annual Sale, 10/1867: 1936 $23 • Colonel M. I. Cohen • Edward Cogan 10/1875: 1909 $50 • J. E. Cooley • Sylvester S. Crosby • Henry C. Hines, 1945 • Dr. William H. Sheldon, 4/19/1972 • R. E. Naftzger, Jr., 2/23/1992 • Eric Streiner • Jay Parrino (The Mint). State I. Obverse illustrated on the Crosby Plate. Obverse and reverse illustrated in Breen's Encyclopedia of U. S. and Colonial Proof Coins (1977) and in Breen's Encyclopedia of U. S. and Colonial Coins (1988). Collectors have named this awesome piece "The Coin!" Some have speculated that Mickley got it from the Mint Cabinet in trade.

MS-60 George W. Merritt • Ed. Frossard 1/1879: 79 $76 • Ed. Frossard • Lorin G. Parmelee • New York Coin & Stamp Co. 6/1890: 668 $70 • Harlan P. Smith • Virgil M. Brand, 2/7/1941 • B. G. Johnson (St. Louis Stamp & Coin Co.), 2/18/1943 • A. Kosoff • Oscar J. Pearl • Numismatic Gallery FPL, 1944: 3 $850 • T. James Clarke, 10/ 1954 • R. E. Naftzger, Jr., 2/23/1992 • Eric Streiner • Jay Parrino (The Mint). State III. Reverse illustrated on the Crosby-Levick Plate. Obverse illustrated in the 1879 Frossard Monograph. Obverse and reverse illustrated in Noyes.

AU-55 With a very small planchet clip. W. Elliot Woodward • W. Elliot Woodward, 5th Semi-Annual Sale, 10/1864: 603 $27 • Joseph Zanoni • Thomas Cleneay • S. H. & H. Chapman 12/1890: 1795 $122.50 • Chas. Steigerwalt • John G. Mills • S. H. & H. Chapman 4/1904: 1227 $235 • George H. Earle, Jr. • Henry Chapman 6/1912: 3355 $140 • Henry Chapman • Clarence S. Bement • Henry Chapman 5/1916: 286 $300 • Col. James W. Ellsworth, 3/1923 • Wayte Raymond, 1923 • William Cutler Atwater • B. Max Mehl #108, 6/1946: 10 $330 • Louis E. Eliasberg, Sr. • Bowers and Merena 5/1996: 487 $132,000 • Spectrum Numismatics. State II.