The history of coins half-pennies and pennies
74Copper
I am an avid coin collector,so I have decided to do some studying and do a series on the history of coins.
I will start with small denominations,half pennies and pennies.Of course I will include pictures of both my coins,and others from the web.
Coin collecting can be a fun and very interesting hobbie;not to mention it can be PROFITABLE too!
We will start first with the half-cent!
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1808 HALF CENTS USA
Current Bid: $66.00
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Library of Coins Album Vol. 36 Half Cents 1793 - 1857
Current Bid: $24.00
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Dansco 7098 Coin Album For U.S. Half Cents
Current Bid: $18.99
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Walter Breen's Encyclopedia of United States Half Cents
Current Bid: $48.99
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Let's get down to business!!
The war was over and it was time for America to get their finances together.One of the first order of business was to develop a money standard.
The mint was developed in 1792 and the very first half-cent was minted in July of 1793.It was copper and really most people just hated it.It was still minted for nearly 60 years.
Our money supply then was based on the Spanish "dollar".A bit or a "slice"{1/8th} of a Spanish dollar was worth 12 1/2 cents;so the people needed a way to make change.
As you can see above there were several different styles minted--I would love to have them all in my collection!!!
- Making money
History.com
Large cents
We will now move on to large cents.
It was LARGE too--about three times the size of the pennies we know now.
Here's a picture of one of my large cents--a very nice 1845 Braided hair.
The large cent slowly went down in size and ended up with what we have now--The price of copper and making them was not profitable.
They were made from 1793-1857 and in that time "shrunk" in size from 29 mm to 27 mm.
The designs changed often on the large cents because of disagreements at the mint.In the coin-collecting world this means many varieties.Some of those varities can be worth a LOT of money!!
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1838 coronet Large cent us coin
Current Bid: $16.95
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1847 Large US Cent Braided Hair Copper Large Cents Coin
Current Bid: $11.99
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Flying Eagle
The smaller,copper Flying eagle cents were made from 1857-1858.The cost of making the larger coins was getting out of hand;also the United States government wanted to take a bite out of the Spanish hold on our money supply.
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1858 Large Letters Flying Eagle Cent Great Coin L@@K
Current Bid: $15.50
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NICE 1858 Small Letters Flying Eagle Cent in FINE
Current Bid: $24.50
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Indianhead Penny
First and foremost,that is not an indianhead.Longacre,the designer,actually mean't for that to be Lady Liberty wearing a bonnet.
The pennys were minted from 1859-1909.They are highly collectable;I have a few myself.In 1908 and 1909 San Francisco minted some which are very rare.
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INDIANHEAD PENNIES (LOT OF 6 COINS)
Current Bid: $5.99
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US - 1894 TO 1897 INDIANHEAD PENNIES - FAIR TO GOOD
Current Bid: $2.25
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Thank Teddy
You can thank Theodore Roosevelt for what we call the "wheat" penny.
Abe Lincoln on the front was why you should thank Mr. Roosevelt.It was morally wrong to put the face of a person living or dead on money at that time.Teddy,bullish as he was,insisted and we had the wheat penny.Minted from 1909-1958.
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LOT OF 10 MIXED DATE WHEAT CENTS PENNIES CIRCULATED
Current Bid: $.99
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LOT OF 10 MIXED DATE WHEAT CENTS PENNIES CIRCULATED
Current Bid: $.99
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Steel Pennies
In 1943 copper was needed terribly for the war.The mint then gave the copper for the war effort and made pennies of steel as you can see here.
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~3~ 1943 P D S STEEL WHEAT PENNIES PENNY
Current Bid: $49.99
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1943 Lincoln Wheat PENNY ONE CENT 1 US COIN STEEL WW II
Current Bid: $.49
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Lincoln Memorial
Last we have the Lincoln Memorial.It has the same basic front of the "wheat" cent but with the Lincoln Memorial on the back.They have been minted from 1959-now.In 1982 the majority of copper was taken away from pennies.
They are a very costly coin for our government to make.
Should we do away with the penny and round up or down???
Many think so!!
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Numismatic News (1-year)
Price: $24.99
List Price: $117.00 |
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Coin World
Price: $41.95
List Price: $130.00 |
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Coins Magazine (1-year)
Price: $25.98
List Price: $48.00 |
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Lincoln Memorial Cent Set 1959-2008 Complete Choice BU!
Current Bid: $17.95
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Lincoln Memorial Cent Set 1959-2008 Complete Choice BU!
Current Bid: $17.95
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The Beatles
Hope you got something out of this.I will be following up with hubs on other types of coins in the near future--check back!!!
©G.L. Boudonck
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Comments
nice Hub. I have some old pounds and the like from Ireland. I'm not really a coin collector but they were a gift from a friend due to my interest in all things Irish.
Thank you all--I do have som old australian coins too!!It's sure a lot of fun collecting,maybe in time I will study up and do a hub on non-USA money too.
Thanks for bringing back so many memorys..I used to love collecting coins with different shapes and sizes and ones with holes in them and have lost them all due to moving around so much..
Yes. get rid of every penny and round up .it's pretty simple ..I just wished i knew why they are still in existence!! I suppose $9.99 sounds like a better bargain than $10.00.!!
When i am in this situation i always ask if i can do a deal and they always expect me to ask for a cheaper price but i always round up saying "you can keep the penny" or can i give you $10 dollars instead..
So, if you have some filthy old pennies that aren't worth anything as collectibles, here's a few ideas on cleaning them.
Thanks john.






MrMarmalade says:
7 months ago
There is an Australian one penny of I think about 1930 worth $100,000. At this stage I have not found it. It featured in the news about 1 year ago. I guess someone found it.