Walter Breen's Encyclopedia of Early United States Cents

Obverse 9.

Reverse F. Long tails to the right ribbon end and R.

Lowest left leaf is quite long, sharply pointed, and drooping, pointing to the left base of N (this leaf is normally horizontal). The leaf pair at TA is also long and curving, unusually close to the bases of TA. Lowest outer left berry has an exceptionally long stem which lies along the upper edge of the adjacent leaf. Berries apparently 10 left and seven right. (Sheldon counted eight on the right branch, the extra one being isolated outside the berry below M, exactly as in reverse B above, with which this die shares the other peculiarity of extra long heavy dentils nearly touching some letters.) In the fraction, both Is lean left. N T are apart and below CE. Irregularly spaced legend: UN, IT, ED, ST, ES, and ERI are much closer than other letters; RI touch.

Die states: I. Obverse apparently the same as state VI of number 10 with the crack from the rim to nose extremely faint. No reverse cracks.

II. Obverse as state I. The reverse has a minute trace of a crack from the rim to top of R only. Heavy clash marks from the hair at ON, C(E), and the left wreath.

III. Obverse as state VIII of number 10. Reverse cracked from rim the through R to the wreath. This is at first faint, later heavy.

IV. Faint crack from the rim to comer of 4 to the bust. Faint bulge into the field from the left side of O(F). Larger bulge developing below ATE.

Equivalents: Maris 25, "Nondescript" (1869 edition).

Frossard 11.2 and 15. Doughty 38. Hays 24. McGirk 11A. Ross 15-Q. Chapman 21. Sheldon 29. EAC 14. Encyclopedia 1660.

High Rarity 2.

Remarks: Maris dropped the "Nondescript" title from his 1870 edition, possibly because the "tailed" reverse is one of the most easily recognized of all 1794 dies. With-out the tails, it is fairly similar to reverse B (numbers 3 and 4) and may have been made on the same day.

The detached extra berry near M occurs also on reverses B and X, and on no others of this date. Only these three reverses received extensive alterations. This required reannealing before the new engraving, and rehardening after it; an expensive expedient, risking breakage. The extra berry evidently identified the few dies so altered. Obverse 11, twice altered, already had its own badge (the "Marred Field"): see 12, 13, 25-28.

Probably 16,000 struck March 10.

Condition Census:

MS-61 Abram S. Jenks • Edward Cogan 4/1877: 699 $20 • Lorin G. Parmelee • M. A. Brown • S. H. & H. Chapman 4/1897: 753 $22 • S. H. & H. Chapman • Col. James W. Ellsworth, 3 /1923 • Wayte Raymond • Charles E. Clapp, Sr., 12/1924 • George H. Clapp • ANS • Dr. William H. Sheldon • T. James Clarke • Dr. William H. Sheldon. Obverse and reverse illustrated in Noyes.

MS-61 Mark Yaffe (National Gold Exchange), 8/1997. MS-60 W. W. Hays, 1900 • Chas. Steigerwalt, 1906 • Charles G. Zug • Lyman H. Low 3/1907: 24 $31 • Howard R. Newcomb • J. C. Morgenthau & Co. #458, 2/1945: 41 $65 • Willard C. Blaisdell • Del Bland • John W. Adams • Bowers and Ruddy Galleries FPL, 1982: 21 $9,500 • Del Bland, 10/27/1984 • Dr. Allen Bennett. State III. Reverse illustrated in Frossard-Hays. Obverse and reverse illustrated in Chapman. Obverse illustrated in Penny Whimsy.

AU-55 From France • Thomas D. Reynolds.