Walter Breen
(Mint record: 941,116)
Many of the cents delivered during this year may have been dated 1803 and 1804. Were we to assume that all were dated 1805, that would average out to over 480,000 impressions per die: manifestly too high.
On June 5, 1805, Boudinot ordered Adam Eckfeldt to find some merchant who would import a half ton of die steel. Shortages of die steel for some denominations had been worsening since 1800. Not all die blanks were usable for all denominations. Those for half cents were too narrow for cents, half dollars or eagles; those for silver dollars were too large. Die blanks for cents and half dollars were in the greatest demand and therefore most quickly exhausted.
Both reverses of this year were left over from 1803.
Their small letters and fraction indicate that they were made before the six Large Letters reverse dies (1803 N, O, P, S, 1804 A, 1807 C and the unused die muled with the 1806 quarter obverse described below).
The Director's Report gives quarterly delivery figures:
First quarter - 108,000
Second quarter - 187,500
Third quarter - 301,000
Fourth quarter - 344,616
Total - 941,116
Most of these were on overweight blanks. "Contingent expenses in the last six months, have been pretty considerable. This has arisen from sundry repairs, particularly of the stable, coal house, a pair of rollers, and one of the coining presses, which could not be dispensed with, but which will not again occur in many years." (American State Papers - Finance, Vol. II, P: 165.) The Director's crystal ball was cloudy: see 1806.
Between December 1950 and December 1953, I attributed over 30,000 unpicked large cents: this "observation series" became the basis for the rarity ratings in Penny Whimsy. For 1805, the count of number 1 was 924; of 2, 29; and of 3, 320. Even today; the ratio is much the same: number 1 shows up somewhat less than three times as often as number 3, and the latter shows up about 11 to 12 times as often as number 2.