Why do they call it a Booby head?

mbbiker

I've always wondered where the name booby head came from, can anyone tell me?
link to a booby head

FC57Coins

Because that's the look us guys get when we're looking at boobies!

lordmarcovan

I've often wondered the same thing.

I would imagine it's because Lady Liberty's head is rather birdlike and silly-looking in that portrait.

Edit to add: the previous answer's a pretty good one, too.

VonZipper

That's a two bag head. IMO

MadMarty

That would make the SBA a three bag head!!!

kranky

Breen said this:

The names Silly Head and Booby Head (both refer to types of 1839 cents) date back to June 1868, when Ebenezer Locke Mason, Jr. tried to standardize them in his Coin and Stamp Collector's Magazine. Earlier, they had been inconsistently applied.

The Booby Head is identifiable by the sharply angular truncation line (between back of neck and shoulder) at lower right, defining a triangular area behind and below which are parts of one and the same lock of hair.

toothpuller

Here's a Silly Head

jbsteven

I guess booby in those days means the same as FUGLY now.

MacCrimmon

See the N5 graded MS64 Red.......now that's a BOOBY HEAD

BAD BOOBY - WHO GOTS $21,000??

Everybody email Tom and tell to take a pic and post it......