Mintage of 1804 Dated Coins
chesterb
Posts: 962 ✭✭✭✭✭
I noticed that there are over 1M 1804 dated Half Cents but all other coins are rare (Cent, Dime, Quarter) or nonexistent (Half Dollars, Dollars). Why is that? What happened at the mint to cause a very low production of non-Half Cents in 1804? (Please don't reply that there are 1804 Dollars because those were minted much later with the 1804 date.)
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A fair question to which I have no ready answer.
BTW, the Mint did strike dollars in 1804, but it is universally assumed that they were dated 1803 from leftover dies.
The 1803 dies were found in the Melting & Refining department refrigerator. They were wedged behind a 3-week old corned beef on rye, and a half head of lettuce that had decayed and now looked like the profile of Mary somebody-or-other. The dies were in good shape, and being economical folks at the Mint, they were used until they cracked and that was in 1804.
We don't know what became of the sandwich, but the lettuce ended up on ebay.
There were 150,000 half dollars struck in 1804 along with 750,000 cents.
Older dies were used and the Redbook figures reflect what is thought to
be correct mintages by date for this period.
Interesting! Would love to see photos of original Mint documentation for that!
Someplace I have original photos of the refrigerator too - but sadly, not of the lettuce that looked like Mary Somebody-or-Other.
That horse-powered refrigerator must have taken up a lot of room!
Yep! And this one also had an ice maker that required a pony to power it.
Overall, it is my understanding this type of refrigerator did not catch on because of the necessity of either having someone inside all the time so they could light the candle when the door was opened, or of leaving the candle burning all the time with the door closed. (Dripping wax spoiled the lettuce.)
The US mint did not need to mint many early quarters, dimes, or half dimes because there was more than enough Latin American 1/2 reales, one reals, and two reales in circulation at that time. More US half dollars needed to be struck as the mintage of four reales was smaller in relation to other minors.
One rule of thumb for copper collectors if the mintage for half cents was high in a given year, the large Cent was low or on the low side. Both coins were struck in the same department at the first mint. Sometimes it had to do with planchet availability.
Here are some examples:
1800 half cent - common, Large Cent - tougher than often perceived
1801 half cent - none minted, Large Cent - common date
1802 half cent - key date, Large Cent - common date
1803 half cent - slightly better date, Large Cent - common date
1804 half cent - most common date, Large Cent - key date
1805 half cent and large cents better than average dates
1806 half cent - common, Large Cent better date