The designs of these pattern cents had a bust of Liberty with flowing hair on the obverse and a wreath tied with a ribbon on the reverse. The Mint created another pattern cent using an alloy of copper and silver in the same proportions. Thus, the silver center coin contained one-quarter cent worth of copper and three-quarter cent worth of silver - equaling one cent. Chief Coiner Henry Voigt reduced the size of the cent to 21 millimeters - the size of today’s nickel - and placed a hole in the center of the copper. In light of these circumstances, Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson and the Mint decided to make a pattern cent, different from what Congress had authorized. When Congress passed Mint Act on April 2, 1792, it also called for funds to construct the Mint buildings. Congress had passed its first Coinage Act three months earlier on 2nd April 1792, authorising the creation of the official Mint in Philadelphia to strike the coins of the United States. Copper was not only scarce, it was expensive. Moreover, the Mint had trouble buying copper for its new coinage. It would be an extremely large coin with minimal value and impractical for daily use. That brought the coin’s diameter to 28 millimeters, larger than today’s 24-millimeter quarter. The Coinage Act set the composition of the cent to 264 grains of copper, the amount of copper needed to be worth one cent. One of these pattern coins was the silver center cent, which was an effort to reduce the amount of copper in the one-cent coin. Throughout 1792, the Mint produced pattern coins of some of the smallest denominations in high demand for circulation. But before the first coins were struck for circulation, the new Mint needed to practice and experiment. The Coinage Act of 1792 established a national mint and the monetary system of the United States, including all denominations of coins and their compositions. The year 1792 was one of experimentation for the U.S. The following is an excerpt from an Inside the Mint article by Tim Grant and Stephanie Meredith It is possible that the coin Pike enclosed in his 1792 letter to Washington was this gold coin.Large cent blank and silver center cent blank on display at the Philadelphia Mint. 1837) edit The Coinage Act of 1792 established the United States Mint and regulated the coinage of the United States. It was common for coin makers to send government officials samples of their work in hopes of gaining a contract. 1 The Spanish Piece of Eight, used widely as currency in Colonial America and the ancestor of American coinage Paper money would not be printed by the United States until 1861. On February 29, 1792, teacher and mathematician Nicolas Pike of Newburyport wrote to George Washington enclosing a sample coin “struck in my presence by an ingenious & reputable Gentleman, who also made the Die.” The maker wished to remain anonymous, Pike wrote, but if Congress liked the design, “he would be happy…to serve the Public in this line.” Pike is almost certainly referring to Jacob Perkins. Interestingly, Perkins also produced well-known funeral medals commemorating Washington after his 1799 death. Though just 25 years old at the time, Jacob Perkins was experienced in the realm of currency: in 1788, he had been hired to engrave dies for Massachusetts copper cents and half cents. By 1794 dollar coins were being printed, but some foreign. The physical appearance of the coin itself also points to an American rather than British manufacture. This created the dollar as the nations standard currency and established the US Mint to oversee it. The bust of Washington on this coin closely matches the depiction on another coin that Perkins designed. Lettering around the edge of the coin reads “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.”įor years the Washington President gold eagle pattern coin was thought to have been struck in England, but researchers now identify the maker as Jacob Perkins, a talented die engraver, inventor, and physicist in Newburyport, Massachusetts. The eagle holds a banner in its beak with the motto “UNUM E PLURIBUS.” Thirteen stars appear in an arc above the eagle’s head. The front of the coin features a bust of George Washington in military uniform, surrounded by the words “WASHINGTON PRESIDENT 1792.” On the reverse is a heraldic eagle (similar to the Great Seal of the United States) with an olive branch in one talon and thirteen arrows in the other. coinage and, as the only gold coin with this design, a unique artifact. The 1792 Washington President gold eagle pattern has sparked the interest of collectors and numismatists for generations. It is the earliest gold pattern prepared for U.S. Although George Washington objected to having his image appear on currency, more than 20 surviving pattern coins feature the first president. Pattern coins were often produced as samples by private mints hoping to secure government contracts to produce currency.
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