It's The Head, Silly!

The public's acceptance of Cent designs during the first few years of US mintage was, to say the least, not enthusiastic. Anyone who has studied these types would probably understand; Liberty's features during the various configurations weren't exactly the Mint's finest hours of design. From the "Liberty in a Fright" of the earliest Cents, to the 1808-1814 Classic Cents with a fillet which was only actually worn by male athletes in ancient Greece, to the "obese ward boss" of the 1816 design, these issues probably deserved the ridicule they received.

In 1839, no less than 4 differing designs of Large Cent were struck, plus some which were struck using leftover dies of the 1836 type, with plain hair ties. Two of these, called "Silly Head" and "Booby Head," were only produced in this year. The others were representative of the design which came before, and the one which replaced it. The Silly and Booby Head types were characterized by hair braids under the neck which were anatomically impossible if Liberty actually had a body; they curled under the cut-off base of the neck. In addition, my own observation is that it was planned for Liberty to double as a fly-catcher, much like the Peace dollar, as her mouth was open.

This one year of Large Cent design is altogether fascinating, and a sizable collection can be built just on its' differing variants.

Presented here is a Silly Head variant, the starting piece for what is planned to be an EF-AU 7070 Typeset. It was represented to me as AU50, a grade with which I can agree, unless it's based on EAC standards, which are stringent to say the very least.