Vital Stats.
Designer: Christian Gobrecht
Diameter: 23 mm
Edge: Plain
Metal Content: 100% copper
Weight: 5.44 grams
Year/
Mint Mark | Circulation
Strikes |
1840  | 0 ‡ |
| 1841 | 0 ‡ |
| 1842 | 0 ‡ |
| 1843 | 0 ‡ |
| 1844 | 0 ‡ |
| 1846 | 0 ‡ |
| 1847 | 0 ‡ |
| 1848 | 0 ‡ |
| 1849 | 39,864 |
| 1850 | 39,612 |
| 1851 | 147,672 |
| 1852 | 0 ‡ |
| 1853 | 129,694 |
| 1854 | 55,358 |
| 1855 | 56,500 |
| 1856 | 40,430 |
| 1857 | 35,180 |
| ‡ Proofs only |
|
Typical (pop. 4,511)
"Braided Hair" Half Cent
It was the custom in this era to give visiting dignitaries gifts of proof sets of United States
coins. In 1840, Mint Director Patterson decided to include the half cent in the proof sets and instructed Mint
engraver Christian Gobrecht to create dies for this purpose.
Gobrecht used the same Braided Hair design he had used on his cent of 1839. The Gobrecht
Braided Hair is a simple design that gives dignity to this lowest coin denomination. A bust
of Liberty, her hair braided into a bun in the back of her head, ringlets of hair draping
down below the base of the bust, faces left. She is wearing a tiara in which the word
LIBERTY is inscribed.
Braided Hair half cents of 1840 to 1849 were made only as proofs and were used for diplomatic
presentation sets or sold to well-connected collectors. Orders for business strikes numbered
only about 16,000 pieces per year, and the Mint met demand from stocks on hand.
In 1849, with supplies dwindling, small orders for half cents were received by the Mint, and
production of the coin began again. Minting continued until 1857 when the denomination was
finally discontinued.
|
