1816

The 1816 large cent is the first year of the Coronet Head design and the first large cent struck after the one-year gap in 1815. No large cents had been produced in 1815 because the War of 1812 had disrupted the copper supply from England. When production resumed, the coin carried a new design: Liberty facing left, wearing a coronet (a type of crown or headband) inscribed LIBERTY, with curled hair falling below. The reverse shows a wreath of laurel encircling ONE CENT.

The designer was Robert Scot, the aging Chief Engraver. Mint officials bypassed his assistant John Reich (who had created the Classic Head) and assigned Scot to the redesign. The result was not universally admired. Dr. William Sheldon, the scholar whose die variety numbering system became the standard reference for early large cents, described Liberty on these coins as resembling "the head of an obese ward boss." The design would remain on the large cent through 1839, making it one of the longest-lived designs in the series.

The 1816 had a solid mintage of 2,820,982 coins, and the date is among the most available Coronet Head issues. A significant reason for that availability is the Randall Hoard: approximately 14,000 uncirculated large cents dated 1816 through 1820 were discovered beneath an old railway platform in Georgia shortly after the Civil War. The 1816 was one of the dates represented in the hoard, and nearly all Mint State 1816 cents on the market today descend from that single find. The hoard coins often show carbon flecks from moisture exposure but retain original mint color that would otherwise be unknown on coins this old.

The one-year absence of the large cent in 1815 (the only year no U.S. cents were produced from 1793 to the present) had created pent-up demand for copper coinage. The 1816 arrived to fill that gap, introducing a new portrait to a public that had last seen large cents bearing the Classic Head design two years earlier.