A beautiful 1794 Half Cent from the "Whister" Collection

halfcentman

This is a 1794 "High Relief" head. As many of you know, 1794's are a totally separate type from 1795's since they designed by two different men.

To boot, this is not the typical type. This is the Cohen-7 with the "Cent Style" reverse. Nasty tough.

Enjoy,

Greg

SoCalBigMark

Sweet!

keyman64

That looks awesome!

AnkurJ

Nice!

joecopper

Heckuva coin - the auction ought to be a dandy - hope so for Bob.

Unknown

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BillJones

Actually if you want to get picky, there are at least two general type designs of 1794 half cents, and they are more striking that the differences between the Type I and Type II Buffalo nickels. The trouble is this is very pricey territory as well as darn scrarce. Finding a nice 1794 half cent is much harder than finding a nice 1794 large cent.

Here is a 1795 half cent. Despite the fact that the type coin albums and registries lump these coins together, the designs are quite different in their execuation.

MikeInFL

Bill, Of all your wonderful copper, I think I like that '95 half cent the most. Wonderful coin!

Greg, That's a super cool half cent as well! Thanks for sharing...Mike

halfcentman

<< <i>Wowo....gorgeous....btw who is EX:Whister? >>



He's a friend of mine.

Nysoto

Greg - Very nice 1794 half cent. Bill Jones' 1795 is outstanding!


<< <i>As many of you know, 1794's are a totally separate type from 1795's since they designed by two different men >>


Could you explain the various engravers who worked on the 1793, 1794, and 1795 half cents? That would be very interesting and informative.

BillJones

1793 - Roger Cohen speculated that Joseph Wright may have done some of the work on the obverse of the C-1 and C-2 coins. The basis for that is that the Liberty Cap bust on those two is more finely executed that the bust that appeared on the C-3 and C-4 varieties.

The generally accepted theory about who designed and cut the dies for the 1793 half cents is Adam Eckfeldt. Eckeldt was a highly skilled machinist, but not an artist. His work was sound mechanically if not artistically. If you compare the die work on the 1793 half cents and the 1793 Wreath cents, you will conclude that the work was by the same hand.

1794 – Half cents of this year are attributed to Robert Scott who was appointed Engraver at the Mint on November 23, 1793. His early work has been called the “low relief” varieties, while his later pieces were in high relief. This was also the period when the mint experimented with using a hub to produce the dies. That experiment did not turn out well.

1795 – This design has been attributed to John Smith Gardner, who was an assistant to Robert Scott. The design was the basically the same, but the head of Ms. Liberty was smaller, and I have a theory that Gardner’s dies often had a longer useful life. I base this on the fact that some dies like the S-76 and 78 dies for large cents and the 1795 C-1 for half cents are fairly common R-1 and R-2 die varieties.

Catbert

Bill - I would consider selling body parts for that half cent of yours. Gawd it's gorgeous.

BillJones

<< <i>Bill - I would consider selling body parts for that half cent of yours. Gawd it's gorgeous. >>



You don't need to go that far.

It is the more common lettered edge variety (Cohen 1, and MAY BE among the ten finest known for the variety. It is certainly among the top 15 examples for the variety. The problem is a lot of these coins are in strong hands, and the owners are not about to sell, at least in the short run. Therefore the prices are high.

Here is one that actually a little rarer and in slightly better condition although you probably won't like it as much. It is an example of the 1794 half cent in "low relief." The coin that started this string is an example of "high relief" 1794 half cent. This one is a Cohen 1, R-3 (201 to 500 known); the other piece is C-7 which is rated as an R-5 (31 to 75 known).

Nysoto

Bill - thanks for explaining the generally accepted EAC position on the engravers of these early dies. There was an interesting article in Penny-Wise recently by Bill Eckberg who determined from researching US Mint records that Joseph Wright was responsible for some of the early working dies (I can't remember the specific ones) and that he did get to see some of the struck coins before he died from the 1793 yellow fever outbreak.

BillJones

Check out the reverse of the 1793 half cent (C-2) with the 1793 Wreath cent (S-11c). The die work is quite similar.