1800

No half cents were struck in 1798 or 1799. Copper shortages, competing demands on the Mint's limited press capacity, and the simple fact that the half cent was the least important denomination in the building all contributed to the gap. When production resumed in 1800, the coin carried an entirely new design. The Liberty Cap portrait, cap, pole, flowing hair, was gone, replaced by Robert Scot's Draped Bust: Liberty facing right, hair tied with a ribbon and falling in loose curls, a drape of fabric across the shoulder. The reverse retained a wreath enclosing the denomination but used a slightly different style.

The 1800 half cent was struck in quantity: 202,908 coins, comfortably the highest output in the denomination's short history to that point. Copper supply had stabilized enough to sustain a real production run, and the Mint delivered steadily throughout the year. The coin weighs 5.44 grams, maintaining the reduced weight standard adopted in 1795, with a plain edge.

Scot's Draped Bust portrait had already appeared on other denominations. The design was adapted from a drawing attributed to Gilbert Stuart, the portraitist famous for his George Washington paintings. The half cent version is smaller and less detailed than the dollar or half dollar renditions, but the family resemblance is clear. Liberty's expression is more composed than on the Liberty Cap coins, less dynamic, reflecting the neoclassical taste that had replaced the revolutionary-era symbolism of the cap and pole.

For collectors, the 1800 is the entry point to the Draped Bust half cent series and one of the most affordable dates in the denomination's early history. Examples in Good to Fine condition appear regularly at auction, and the relatively high mintage means that finding a problem-free coin with original surfaces, while never easy for copper this old, is more realistic than for most earlier dates. Brown surfaces with even coloring and no major marks represent the standard to aim for.