1793 Flowing Hair Cent. Wreath Reverse. S-8. Rarity-3. Vine and Bars Edge. MS-63 BN (PCGS). CAC.<strong>Type:</strong> Flowing Hair, Wreath Reverse.<p><strong>Design:</strong> Obv: A head of Liberty with flowing hair faces right, the word LIBERTY inscribed along the upper border and the date 1793 at the lower border. There is a sprig with three leaves in the field between the date and the base of the portrait. Rev: A wreath surrounds the denomination ONE CENT, the base of the wreath bound by a ribbon tied into a bow. The legend UNITED STATES OF AMERICA is around the border and another expression of the denomination 1/100 is below.<p><strong>Weight Standard:</strong> 13.48 grams.<p><strong>Diameter:</strong> Approximately 26 to 28 mm.<p><strong>Die Variety:</strong> Sheldon-8, Breen-13. Obv: The Horizontal Stem variety with the sprig nearly paralleling the top of the date from the middle of the digit 7 to the right side of the 3. High grade examples, as here, reveal minute die chips on Libertys cheek and temple. This obverse was also used in the S-9 and NC-4 pairings. Rev: The bow binding the base of the wreath is heavy, high and triangular in shape, and the uppermost trefoil in the left wreath branch is under the first letter T in STATES. Sheldon-8 represents the only use of this reverse die.<p>Sheldon-8 is one of several die marriages that correspond to the Vine and Bars Edge <em>Guide Book</em> variety of the 1793 Wreath cent. The others are S-5, S-6, S-7, S-9, S-10, S-11A, NC-4 and NC-5.<p><strong>Die State:</strong> Noyes C/B, Breen II. Obv: Clashed under Libertys chin and within the hair strands at the back of the head, faint die swell in the upper right field from the brow to the nose. The digits 93 in the date are weak and incomplete due to die crumbling. Rev: A bisecting crack has developed along the bulge within the wreath, originating at the first letter T in STATES and continuing faintly to the final A in AMERICA.<p><strong>Edge:</strong> Ornamented with bars and a slender vine with leaves.<p><strong>Mintage:</strong> The mintage for the 1793 Wreath cent as an issue is widely accepted to be 63,353 coins, which correspond to the Mints nine deliveries for this denomination from April 9 to July 17, 1793:<p>-April 9: 12,000 coins<p>-April 13: 6,112 coins<p>-April 16: 8,000 coins<p>-April 17: 7,000 coins<p>-April 18: 6,000 coins<p>-April 19: 4,240 coins<p>-April 28: 8,000 coins<p>-July 6: 11,825 coins<p>-July 17: 176 coins<p>Production from the Sheldon-8 die marriage is believed to be included in the deliveries of April 19 and April 28.<p><strong>Estimated Surviving Population for the Die Variety:</strong> Rarity-3: 301 to 400 coins in all grades.<p><strong>Strike:</strong> This is a boldly to sharply struck example with impressive detail down to even the finest elements of Libertys hair on the obverse and the wreath on the reverse. Both sides are well centered on the planchet with full border beads.<p><strong>Surfaces:</strong>Warm olive-brown patina with tinges of lighter autumn-brown. Under magnification some tiny areas of original mint red can be seen (for example, to the right of the final A in AMERICA). The surfaces are hard, tight and overall smooth, with only a few useful identifiers: shallow planchet pit in the lower left obverse field, dull mark on the same side near the border beads after the word LIBERTY and, most significantly, a thin reverse lamination or strikethrough (as made) in the field between the words OF and AMERICA.<p><p><p><strong>Commentary: </strong><p>While Chain cents often attract the most interest for their position as the first made, there is not a collector alive who would assert that Chain cents are more beautiful than their Wreath reverse counterparts. Breen boldly suggested that the elegance of the Wreath cents "was Director David Rittenhouses answer to the newspaper criticisms" lodged against the Chain cent. Though no evidence exists to support this, the fact remains that the Wreaths represented a substantial step up in both design artistry and engraving execution. The details of this fine style design are lost with even light wear, making Mint State Wreath cents the crown princes of the early copper world.<p>In any numismatic season a 1793 Wreath cent is an object of desire, and even coins that are worn nearly smooth command interest and attention. The 2000 reference Walter Breens <em>Encyclopedia of Early United States Cents: 1793-1814</em> states that approximately 4% of the mintage of 63,353 coins for the 1793 Wreath cent is extant, or 2,400 to 2,800 in all grades. About Uncirculated and Mint State survivors exist in a slightly greater percentage of the mintage than for later years, perhaps due to interest shown in these early U.S. Mint products by contemporary collectors in England, where numismatics was already firmly established by the 1790s. Advanced numismatists will be sure to take note of this highlight in the ESM Collection of Large Cents.<p>Graded EAC MS-60 and ranked CC#2 for the Sheldon-8 dies by Del Bland, AU55(MS60) Average and CC#5/7 in the 2006 edition of the Noyes large cent reference.<p>PCGS# 1347. NGC ID: 223H.PCGS Population (all die marriages of the Vine and Bars Edge variety): 7; 24 finer in this category (MS-69 BN finest).From the ESM Collection. Earlier ex Captain Andrew C. Zabriskie; Henry Chapmans sale of June 1909, lot 730; George H. Earle, Jr.; Henry Chapmans sale of the George H. Earle, Jr. Collection, June 1912, lot 3360; John H. Clapp; Clapp estate, 1942; Louis E. Eliasberg, Sr.; our (Bowers and Merenas) sale of the Louis E. Eliasberg, Sr. Collection, May 1996, lot 488; Spectrum Numismatics; Superiors Pre-Long Beach Elite Fall Sale of September 2002, lot 32. The plate coin for the die variety in Walter Breens large cent encyclopedia.
