Draped Bust Large Cent

1796 to 1807

	This was the first large cent that is available today at a reasonable cost. Designed in 1796 by Robert Scot, the Draped Bust Design was more popular than previous attempts. The coin was 29mm in diameter and was also made of pure copper although it was not twice as heavy as the half cent.
This coin is a recent addition and is mounted in the U. S. Types album.		This is the reverse of the coin at left.
This coin is no longer the oldest large Cent coin that I own. I would love to clean it because it is very dark, having been corroded badly over the centuries. But copper is hard to clean and anyway, the process would degrade the value of the coin, which cost me $305.49    I have graded the coin F 12 and if that is accurate, it is worth about $440. This is the variety they call 'second hair style'.		This is the reverse of the coin at left. It shows a mint error at lower right which looks like a scratch. Mint errors on the reverse of these coins was common because they were struck by hand with two men tugging on the weighted lever arm of a small screw-type press. I was very surprised to find that almost 2 million of these coins were minted that year.
This is what a Draped bust cent once looked like, without the dark areas near the bottom and the tiny one at upper left. The coin was sold to me as damaged because of the 'sink' at the right of the portrait. The coin has been cleaned, of course, but since it was already damaged, this did not lower its value substantially. It is now stored in the D case.		This is the reverse of the coin at left. It does have a large dark spot on the back of the bottom of the obverse.

In 1798 John Adams was president, Thomas Jefferson was vice president, the United States Marine Corp is established by congress, and congressman Roger Griswold attacks representative Mathew Lyon with a walking stick in the chambers of the United States House of Representatives.