Flowing Hair Large Cents

The question of who designed the first American cents has never been fully settled, and probably never will be. Henry Voigt, the Mint's chief coiner and a clockmaker by trade, likely engraved the obverse portrait of Liberty for the Chain cent. He had already helped produce the 1792 half disme patterns alongside Adam Eckfeldt, and Mint Director David Rittenhouse trusted him with the critical early work. Some researchers, Breen chief among them, have suggested that Joseph Wright may have refined the Liberty head for the Wreath cent that followed. Wright was a portrait painter, trained under Benjamin West in London, who received an appointment as Mint engraver in the summer of 1793. He died during Philadelphia's yellow fever epidemic that September, having spent only a few weeks on the job. His precise contribution to the coinage remains educated guesswork. The reverse designs, both the chain and the wreath, are generally credited to Voigt and Eckfeldt working together, though Bowers has noted that firm attributions are nearly impossible given how few documents survive from the Mint's chaotic first months of operation.