Walter Breen's Encyclopedia of Early United States Cents

1804

(Mint report: 756,838)

As in 1803, this year began with ample supplies of Boulton cent planchets on hand (nearly 1,600,000), and several pairs of unused dies (1803 obverses and Large Letters reverses).

On May 25, Boudinot ordered more blanks from Boulton: about 20 tons, half for cents, the rest for half cents. These departed Liverpool on September 1 aboard the Savannah, under Captain John Hamilton, arriving November 14. They comprised 122 casks-64 for cent planchets (approximately 952,917) and 62 for half cents (1,878,333).

These cost $16,917.28; Julian has calculated the cost at 89.4 cents per hundred cent blanks.(R.W. Julian, "The Cent Coinage of 1804," Coin World, November 23, 1977, pp. 27, 54.) This was the only shipment during the year, and the last until 1807. Boudinot's letter accompanying the order asked Boulton to make sure that the new blanks not be overweight: shipments of 1803 had run about 3 grains apiece too heavy. (In the previous chapter I quoted the Comptroller's Reportto the same effect.) He also asked that the casks be more carefully made: during 1803, only about one in 10 had been durable enough to use in shipping out finished coin.

This total agrees with the Director's Report.

The Director's Report gives third and fourth quarter figures respectively as 8,500 and 386,838, evidently by typographical error. As in 1803, these cents were distributed to local banks by the Mint and elsewhere by Tench Coxe, Israel Whalon's replacement.

For over a century this date has been extremely famous for the wrong reasons-and exaggerated in alleged rarity.

Collectors have concocted stories to explain why cents of this date are not as plentiful as those of the other single variety years (1806 and 1809), especially given the official 756,838 mintage figure.

Most of the cents struck in 1804 must have been dated 1803 (mostly Large Fraction varieties). We do not know when the Single pair of dies dated 1804 went to press, though long ago I conjectured that the coins struck from them may have been included in the December 31 delivery and the editors of A Guide Book of United States Coins picked up the 96,500 figure." Considering the approximate population of 1804 cents (nearly 1,000), an original mintage figure of 96,500 is in the ballpark and not very far out in left field.

However, the cents dated 1804 may well have been struck in 1805 or even 1806. This may not be possible to determine: all cents delivered in those years were from Boulton blanks of November 1803. Blanks from the three shipments (October 1803, November 1803, and June 1807) maybe distinguishable, however, nobody has yet studied edges of 1803-05 cents. Those dated 1804 tend to run overweight, as in 1803. (Editor's note: as this book is being prepared for press, research is under way by Craig Sholley and R. W. Julian regarding the original mintage quantites for 1799 and 1804-dated cents, along with other years.)