The E-Sylum:  Volume 7, Number 36, September 5, 2004, Article 17

MORE ON THE 1792 CENT

  Peter Gaspar (E-Sylum proud subscriber #1) writes:
  "Alan V. Weinberg's report on the newly reported specimen
  of a plug-less 1792 silver center cent was extremely interesting.
  I wonder whether any of the known specimens has been
  subjected to a form of nondestructive analysis  (e.g. electron
  microprobe or x-ray fluorescence) capable of determining how
  much silver is present.  Eric Newman told me about a
  December 18, 1792 letter from Jefferson to Washington
  conveying two silver-center cents and stating that Mr.
  Rittenhouse was about to make a few pieces from metal in
  which the silver plug was fused with the copper.  But the
  Jefferson letter also stated that cents of the same size as the
  silver-center pieces would be made of copper alone.  Cents
  would also be made four times as large, as ordered by
  Congress.

  The Jefferson letter raises the possibility that there are, or at
  least were, two different small plug-less cents, one containing
  as much silver as the plug, and the other without intentionally
  added silver. (There may still be a small silver impurity in the
  copper of those unalloyed small copper cents.)  Is it known
  whether the extant plug-less cents contain the plugs-worth
  of silver?  Or is it assumed that they do?"

  In a subsequent note Peter added: "    More on my previous
  message.  Touching one's keyboard before consulting Walter
  Breen's writings is always dangerous, and this time was no
  exception.  In his Encyclopedia of U.S. coins, Breen quotes
  the Jefferson 12/18/1792 letter and goes on to list the three
  varieties: #1369 Silver center cent, Judd 1, about 12 known,
  pedigrees for 11 specimens given, plus two perforated blanks
  found by Frank Stewart at a Philadelphia mint site in 1909.
  The weight of one silver center cent (Garrett 2347) is given
  as 70.5 grains = 4.57 grams.   Breen #1370 is a 1792 cent
  from the same dies, billon, no silver plug, 2 known(?), 2
  supposedly authenticated by chemical test, one ex-Harmer
  Rooke 11/69, the other in Bowers Review, pp. 18-20
  (1973-4) and Coin World, 12/4/74, p. 24, 1975 Suburban
  Washington Convention Sale, lot 59. A weight is given for a
  specimen in the ANA collection, 78.2 grains = 4.549 grams,
  but this must be a typo since 78.2 grains = 5.067 grams and
  4.549 grams = 70.2 grains.

  Breen #1371, 1792 cent, same dies, copper, no silver plug,
  Crosby plate 10, #22, Judd 2, figure 16 in Smithsonian
  Bulletin 229, 1970 (V. Clain Stefanelli, History of the
  National Numismatic Collection), Garrett 2448 whose weight
  is given as 63.1 grains = 4.09 grams.

  So the answer to my question with regard to previously
  reported specimens is that the existence of two different
  plug-less small 1792 cents was indeed recognized by Breen
  and he listed all three varieties mentioned by Jefferson.
  Judd 2 (in my sixth edition copy) purposely included both
  plug-less varieties, with the notation that one of the known
  pieces might be billon.  My latest Red Book (2001) lists
  only with- and without-silver center varieties.

  That leaves the new Pittsburgh piece.  Is it billon, made by
  fusing silver and copper, or was it struck on a regular copper
  planchet?  The weight differences noted above are in the
  right direction, but the sample weighed is so small that weight
  would be as dangerous a sole criterion as color for
  distinguishing Breen 1370 and 1371."

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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