Walter Breen's Encyclopedia of Early United States Cents

Obverse 15. DB are close. Y is large, heavy, and slightly low. Top of the hair is unfinished. Normally shaped 1and usual flattened knob of 9, unlike its twin, obverse 18 of number 23.

Reverse N.

Edge: Plain edge (PE) and double-flange edge (DFE). Die states: 1. Defect above 17. Heavy obverse clash marks. Crumbling on the low curls. Weak on back curls and upper obverse border. Cracked through the tops of RTY, at first faint, later increasingly heavy. Reverse as preceding, state V. Clapp 19b-Nc.

II. Cracked from the rim below hair, turning right, below 17 to rim.

III. Branch crack up through 7, bust, and hair, curving slightly to the left.

IV. Cracked from the rim through R to hair. Another crack from the rim opposite nose, through upper lip, cheek, ear, hair, lower ribbon, into left field, and later to the left rim. Clapp 19c-Nc (unlisted combination).

V. Reverse cracked from the rim to A(M), wreath, tops of ONE, and left wreath. Another crack from rim to left top of M. Clapp 19c-Nd.

VI. "Retained cud" on bases of 17 and left, from the state II crack.

VII. Heavy rim break on bases of 17 and left. Discovered by Bill Tivol.

Equivalents: Doughty 131. Proskey 23. McGirk 15A. Clapp 23. Sheldon 163. EAC 20. Encyclopedia 1723.

Low Rarity 4.

Remarks: This obverse and its twin, obverse 18 of number 23, were apparently the last obverses made from the Head of '97 device punch, which had chipped at the top. Some other dies in this group may have begun with this defect, corrected by hand.

Condition Census:

VF-30 Howard R. Newcomb • J. C. Morgenthau & Co. #458,2/1945: 225 $18 • George H. Clapp • ANS • (no longer in ANS collection). State IV. Obverse illustrated in Clapp and in Early American Cents.

VF-30 New England Rare Coin Auctions 3/1979: 638 $875 • Gordon J. Wrubel, 5/1979 • Denis W. Loring, 1/15/ 1980 • Dr. Thomas S. Chalkley • Superior Galleries 11 1990: 352 $14,850 • John R. Frankenfield. Obverse and reverse illustrated in Noyes.

VF-25 Carl Wurtzbach, 1948 • Dr. William H. Sheldon, 4/i9/1972 • R. E. Naftzger, Jr. Obverse and reverse illustrated in Penny Whimsy.

VF-20 Charles E. Clapp, Sr., 3/1921 • George H. Clapp • ANS.

VF-20 A. Kosoff, 8/4/1958 • R. E. Naftzger, Jr.• New Netherlands Coin Co. 11/1973: 478 $140 • Denis W. Loring, 5/1974 • Dr. RobertJ. Shalowitz, 7/1974. William R. T. Smith • Myles Z. Gerson • Dr. Philip W. Ralls.

VF-20 Judge Jos. Sawicki • Stack's 2/1954: 600 $90 • Dorothy Paschal, 5/1977 • Denis W. Loring, 12/1977 • Robinson S. Brown, Jr. • Superior Galleries 9/1986: 230 $2,530 • Thomas D. Reynolds.

VF-20 Howard R. Newcomb • J. C. Morgenthau & Co. #458, 2/1945: 224 $13 • Barney Bluestone • Charles J. Dupont. Stack's 9/1954: 220 $170 • C. Douglas Smith.

F-15 Charles J. Dupont • Stack's 9/1954: 221 $32.50 • Willard C. Blaisdell, 8/7/1978 • C. Douglas Smith, 3/ 30/1992. Eric Streiner • Superior Galleries 10/1992: 96 $550 • Jack H. Robinson.

F-15 Ralph Fegraus, 3/1/1987 • Douglas F. Bird • Fred H. Borcherdt.

F-15 Purchased unattributed on 8/3/1980 at a Brewster, NY, coin show by Carvin Goodridge, 2/26/ 1982 • John G. Fettinger.

F-15 Richard H. Wright • Valley Plaza Coins (Richard H. Wright) FPL #1, Fall 1976: 224 $275.

Reverse Type of 1799

henceforth unless otherwise noted.

The following guide Will help in identifying reverses. In practice, most are identified by die flaws or by trial anderror. The three different forms of C(E) represent damage tothe hub. The original serif was doubtless blunt as formerly; the wedge-shaped point found on numbers 21,23,24,31,37,39, and 41 represents a more careful repair than the thin spine on numbers 22, 32, 34, 35, 36 and several 1800 reverses.