Large cent (United States coin)
The United States large cent was a coin with a face value of 1/100 of a United States dollar. Its nominal diameter was 1 1⁄8 inch (28.57 mm). The first official mintage of the large cent was in 1793, and its production continued until 1857, when it was officially replaced by the modern-size one-cent coin (commonly called the penny).
Large cents were made of nearly pure copper, or copper as pure as it emerged from smelting, without any deliberate addition of other metals (such as occurs in bronze).
First struck in 1793, the large cent was coined every year from 1793 to 1857 except 1815. When the United States declared war in 1812 against Great Britain, coinage was affected. The wartime embargo against shipments made it so the mint could not get any new copper planchets to strike coins which were imported from Great Britain. The mint made do with what supply it had and struck coins into 1815. After the war ended in 1816, the mint wasted no time in ordering new planchets. For an unknown reason no coins were dated 1815 from the supply the mint had in the interim. In addition to the copper shortage, people also hoarded precious metals during the war.
The Philadelphia Mint produced all large cents, which contained twice the copper of the half cent. This made the coins bulky and heavy, bigger than modern-day U.S. Quarters.
The obverse featured a bust of Liberty with a reverse of a ring of chains. Henry Voigt's design was almost universally criticized in its time for its unattractiveness and perceived allusion to slavery. It bears the distinction, however, of being the first official coinage minted by the United States federal government on its own equipment and premises. 36,103 were minted. Its low survival rate, in addition to its small mintage, coupled with being the first regular federal issue and a one-year design and type, has created an extremely strong demand from generations of numismatists. As a result, all surviving specimens command high prices ranging from $2,000-$3,000 in the absolute lowest state of preservation to over $500,000 in the highest.
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