Flowing Hair Half Cent

The Flowing Hair Half Cent is a 1793 issue, the first official year of U.S. Mint coinage.

Specifications

 * Designer: Accredited to Henry Voigt
 * Obverse Design: Miss Liberty Bust
 * Reverse Design: Wreath and bow
 * Edge:
 * Weight:
 * Diameter:
 * Composition: Copper (100%)
 * Dates Minted: 1793

Background
Henry Voigt is often credited with designing the Flowing Hair half cent. But many numismatists dispute this. Henry Voigt is also the one who designed the Chain cent and Wreath cents. Both of those 1793 large cent types feature rather crude, wild-looking Miss Liberty busts, while the Flowing Hair half cent shows a far more subdued, well-rendered bust of Miss Liberty. So maybe those who doubt Voigt’s hand in creating our first half cent have a point. Some experts claim a man named Adam Eckfeldt designed this early copper.

The obverse of the 1793 Flowing Hair half cent shows a bust of Miss Liberty facing left. Angled behind the bust is a Liberty or Phrygian cap on a pole. The history of this Phrygian cap goes back to ancient times. It had its origins in Greece, and apparently newly-freed Roman slaves would wear such a cap. The reverse of this half cent simply shows a wreath and bow, within which are the words, “Half Cent”. Below the wreath is shown the value of the coin: “1/200”, as in 1/200 of a dollar!

History
All Flowing Hair half cents were struck at the newly-operational Philadelphia Mint. Unlike the large cents, which underwent three major design changes in 1793, the Flowing Hair half cent was the one and only half cent type struck in 1793. In 1794, the Flowing Hair half cent was replaced by the Liberty Cap half cent, which featured a right-facing Miss Liberty. Her liberty cap remained, but the Liberty bust was different enough as to warrant this being a new type of half cent.

Collecting
The 1793 Flowing Hair half cent is a highly desirable and sought-after coin for many reasons:


 * It’s a 1793 issue, the first official year of U.S. Mint coinage.
 * With a mintage of only 35,334 this is a truly scarce coin.
 * The Flowing Hair half cent has an obverse design type not replicated in any other year, nor on any other U.S. coin denomination.
 * The Flowing Hair half cent is a one-year only coin (as you might guess from the previous statement).
 * Half cent collectors need this coin to complete their half cent date and type sets.
 * U.S. type coin collectors need this coin to complete their type sets.

All the above factors contribute to the high collector demand for 1793 Flowing Hair half cents. As of this writing they retail about $2,000 in Good, and $4,200 in Fine. That’s a lot of money for a well-circulated coin, but in truth, considering the uniqueness of this early U.S. coin classic, one could argue that this coin is actually UNDER-valued! Compare the retail value for a Good 1793 Flowing Hair half cent with a 1793 Chain cent in Good. They are both 1793 issues, yet the Flowing Hair half cent mintage of 35,334 is a tad smaller than the Chain cent’s mintage of 36,000. Yet while the Flowing Hair half cent retails $2,000 in Good, the Chain cent retails a whopping $7,750 in Good! Even more glaring, the 1793 Wreath cent has nearly double the 1793 Flowing Hair half cent’s mintage (63,000 vs. 35,334), yet the Wreath cent retails $1,700 in Good, $4,000 in Fine. That’s very close in price to the much scarcer 1793 half cent with its $2,000 value in Good and $4,200 in Fine.

All this is to say that while there is a lot of demand for 1793 Flowing Hair half cents, demand is even higher for 1793 large cents. Perhaps that means the Flowing Hair half cent is a “sleeper,” destined to wake up and soar in value. But the truth is, large cents will probably always be more in-demand than half cents, even though half cents are far scarcer as a type. There exists a wide network of large cent collectors, and they even have their own national clubs and societies.

Yes, this coin is hard to find. Yes, this coin is expensive. But considering what you get for the money, it’s probably worth the financial outlay—if you can afford it. It’s hard to regret purchasing a coin of this historical magnitude, no matter what the state of preservation!

Grading
Our earliest half cents did circulate --they were too low in value to be saved, as would be a high denomination silver or gold coin. This accounts for two things: one, a low survival rate of only about 600 of the original 35,334! It also accounts for the many REALLY worn Flowing Hair half cents that survive today. Couple that with the usually lousy copper planchets on which they were struck, and you’d be doing VERY well to find one in any grade above Good! Finding one without problems (cleanings, holed, corrosion, bends, verdigris, etc.) is an even more monumental task. In fact, if you find a problem-free Flowing Hair half cent in, say, Very Fine condition, you may have to pay even MORE than the listed retail price of $6,000— simply because such 1793 half cents don’t come up for sale that often!

Mints

 * Philadelphia Mint (no mintmark)