Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 191, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 August 1915 — LARGE U. S. CENTS. [ARTICLE]

LARGE U. S. CENTS.

Pennies es 1799 Bring from $6 to $350, the 1793 Liberty Cap Being Next In Value, According to Collector’s Figures. Chicago.—“ Large U. S. Cents” is the title of a monograph published by Theodore J. Venn of this city, widely known collector and member of the American Numismatic association, who has been keeping tab on the principal auction sales of coins in this country for more than 30 years, and is able to state from actual experience the approximate value of the many varieties of big cents which were coined by the United States government between 1793 and 1857. It is of interest to note that 1815 was the only year since the cent was first struck In which no coins of that demomlnatlon were turned out by the government This was due to the fact that in that year the Philadelphia mint was destroyed by fire. As the total coinage of cents In the first three years was only 1,066,033 it Is not difficult to figure out why they are pretty scarce and generally valuable. The 1798 Liberty Cap cent, which Is perhaps the rarest of all the big ones, today ranges in values from $4.50 for a fair specimen to SSO for a very fine one; and If tsere is an absolutely uncirculated and unblemished specimen In existence, which is doubted by Mr. Veen, it would easily bring more than $l5O. This particular specimen has been counterfeited, and as the workmen ship of the duplicate is exceptionally fine, it Is a 10-to-l shot that the coin of that kind which you have been treasuring is a fake—unless, of, course, you are an experienced collector or purchased It from a reliable dealer. The 1799 cent is the "aristocrat” of them all, being worth between $6 and $350. For though the coinage of that year was* 904,585, a relatively large number, these cents have become extremely rare. Fighting hard with the 1793 Liberty . Cap and 1799 cent for first place Is the 1839 cent imprinted over 1836. It has been Impossible to set a reasonable value on It, for It is seldom offered for sale, and Indeed Is seldom asked for. It is a "specialist’s” cent, and, together with the 1793 Liberty Cap, will probably never bring anything near the price accorded to the 1799 aristocrat. Of these three varieties it Is figured that the 1793 is really the most scarce. The 1804 cent ranks close to the top, bringing between $3.50 and $175 in its various qualities. Then comes the 1809 cent forth from 50 cents to S4O; and vying with it in rarity is the 1796 Fillet Head, worth from 55 cents to $55.