Braided Hair Large Cent
By the year 1839, no one inside or outside the U.S. Mint were satisfied with the design of the large cent, including the creator, Chief Engraver Christian Gobrecht. The large cent had been the subject of ridicule since its very beginning, mostly for the designs. They are loved by today’s collectors, but the initial reaction was far from enthusiastic. Miss Liberty had been described as “Liberty in a Fright”, “Fat Mistress”, “Silly” and “Booby” over the years.
The inspiration for Gobrecht’s new 1839 design was the classic figure of Love in Benjamin West’s painting, Omnia Vincit Amor. The braided hair over the brow of Liberty, her coronet and the long loose flocks of hair running down her neck reflect the Empire style that was a part of American hair and clothing fashion at the time.
The issues in 1839 through early 1843 show her leaning forward and she looks younger then Gobrecht’s later Liberty where the head is upright and more graceful. Liberty has 13 stars around her with the date below. The reverse used a closed circle wreath with a single stem and leaves in groups of four with large berries. ONE CENT is in the middle of the wreath and UNITED STATES OF AMERICA is around the edge.
The Braided Hair large cent had better uniformity than any previous large cents. Steam power and advances in hubbing the design into the dies helped here. With the arrival of steam power, a very large number of Braided Hair large cents were produced- between 1 and 9 million a year as a matter of fact. There are proofs of all dates except 1839, 1851 and 1853.
The coin was accepted by the public in the beginning but were soon viewed as being too large. They were often badly worn or corroded and carried no status. Merchants often refused to accept them and chose their store tokens or the “Hard Times” tokens that were used for trade.
The unwanted coins were being melted down, physicians recommended wearing them for arthritis, housewives used them in pickling brine and they served as gears to advertising tokens. Uniquely notched coins were used to identify runaway slaves on their way north.
