1796 Draped Bust Cent. S-119. Rarity-3. Reverse of 1797. MS-61 BN (PCGS).<strong>Type:</strong> Draped Bust.<p><strong>Design:</strong> Obv: A draped bust of Liberty faces right with the word LIBERTY above and the date 1796 below. Libertys hair is tied with a ribbon, the ends of which are plainly evident at the back of the head. 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> 10.89 grams.<p><strong>Diameter:</strong> 29 mm.<p><strong>Die Variety:</strong> Sheldon-119, Breen-40. Obv: Compact date with the digit 9 low, the 1 nearly touching the hair and the top of the 6 lost in the bust. The obverse also appears in the S-118 and NC-6 pairings. Rev: Reverse of 1797 with 16 leaves in the left branch of the wreath, 19 in the right, berries six left and six right. The fraction is skewed to the left, and there is a double leaf outside the wreath under the letter D in UNITED. Light die scratches are evident from the F in OF slanting down toward the first letter A in AMERICA, and from the N in ONE, through the left base of the adjacent E, to the left top of the T in CENT. This reverse also appears in the S-123 pairing of the 1797-dated issue.<p>A number of die marriages corresponds to the Reverse of 1797 <em>Guide Book</em> variety of the 1796 Draped Bust cent: S-94, S-100, S-105, S-113, S-114, S-115, S-117, S-118, S-119, NC-1, NC-3 and NC-6.<p><strong>Die State:</strong> Noyes B/C, Breen III. Obv: Sharp crack from the border below the digits 79 in the date, through the base of the 17, the lowest curl, then back to the border at 8 oclock. A second, lighter crack arcs from the border to the bust after the digit 6. Rev: There is a short die break in the denticles above the letters TA in STATES, and a larger one above the AT that joins six denticles. This die state should also include clash marks above the below the ribbon knot, but they are obscured on the present example due to the quality of the strike. The die scratches mentioned above are described as cracks by both Sheldon and Breen.<p><strong>Edge:</strong> Plain.<p><strong>Mintage:</strong> The mintage of 363,375 coins for the 1796 Draped Bust cent provided in most numismatic references corresponds to the Mints deliveries for this denomination from October 13 through the end of calendar year 1796. With additional examples produced during calendar year 1797, and possibly also 1798, the exact mintage from 1796-dated dies is unknown. Walter Breen (2000) asserts that examples from the S-119 dies were delivered sometime from November 6 through December 2, 1797.<p><strong>Estimated Surviving Population for the Die Variety:</strong> Rarity-3: 301 to 400 coins in all grades.<p><strong>Strike:</strong> The obverse is ideally centered with a uniformly denticulated border, reverse also fully denticulated, although drawn trivially to 2 oclock. Examples of the S-119 variety are always blunt on the leaves of the wreath, likely due to die damage. The coin offered here is also softly struck over the lower right reverse and upper right obverse with original planchet roughness remaining in both areas. A few other peripheral features are a bit weak, but the overall design is suitably bold and fully appreciable.<p><strong>Surfaces: </strong>Blended autumn-brown and pale olive patina, the former representing faint remnants of original color. Texture is satiny and hard, the aforementioned roughness in isolated areas on both sides as made, as is a concentration of shallow planchet pits that are well concealed at the junction of Libertys hair and neck above the drapery. There are no handling marks of note.<p><strong>Commentary:</strong> Sheldon-119 is one of the most frequently encountered Draped Bust cents of any date in Mint State, due to the fact that it comprised a major portion of the Nichols Find. During the late 1850s David Nichols of Gallows Hill, Massachusetts began distributing an outstanding cache of approximately 1,000 Mint State 1796 and 1797 Draped Bust cents. The most plentiful varieties associated with the Nichols find are S-119 (as above), S-123 and S-135, although S-104, S-118, S-136 and S-137 were also represented. The coins were supposedly acquired directly from the Mint by Benjamin Goodhue of Salem, Massachusetts in late 1797 or early 1798. Goodhue, a congressman from 1789 to 1796 and senator from 1796 to 1800 as a member of the Federalist party, passed the coins to his daughters, after which they went to Nichols, who dispersed the last examples in 1863. Fortunately for todays high grade type collectors and early copper enthusiasts, many of the Nichols Find cents were subsequently handled with great care and have remained in problem free Mint State. Almost certainly from this find, the ESM specimen would make an impressive addition to either a type or Sheldon number set, as well as a collection of <em>Guide Book</em> varieties as an example of the Reverse of 1797 of the 1796-dated Draped Bust issue.PCGS# 1407.PCGS Population: 3; 15 finer in this category (MS-65 BN finest). There is a single MS-63 listed in the RB category at PCGS.From the ESM Collection. Earlier from Heritages FUN Signature Sale of January 2005, lot 30098.
