1804 1C, BN MS(PCGS#1504)

November 2025 Showcase Auction U.S. Coins

Auctioneer

Stack's Bowers

Lot Number

2021

Grade

F15BN

Price

8,100

Lot Description

Breen Die State I. Deep chestnut brown patina with a few swirls of lighter color at upper reverse. The upper periphery on that side is soft, but the words STATES OF are legible if faint, balance of the design on both sides bold for the grade and fully appreciable. Texture a tad rough, obverse in particular with numerous small and moderate marks peppering the surface.<p>The scarcity of 1804-dated cents relative to most other issues in the Draped Bust series has led numismatists to theorize that most of the coins struck during calendar year 1804 were from 1803-dated dies. This is probably true, although the mintage of 96,500 coins for the 1804-dated issue provided in many numismatic references is also conjecture and based on Breen's assumption that the final delivery of the year - on December 31 - represents the Mint's only delivery from the 1804-dated die pairing. There is no documentary evidence to support this mintage and, indeed, it is listed in italics in the <em>Guide Book</em> to denote that it is an estimate. Some or all 1804-dated cents may have even been struck during calendar year 1805, and possibly even in 1806.<p>Cents of 1804 have long been famous, and perceptions of the issue's rarity date to the 1840s, if not earlier. In 1841 James Morris, a storekeeper in Morgantown, Pennsylvania, recorded that he had "put away...a collection of cents beginning at 1793 and from thence to 1841 inclusive excepting only those of 1804 and 1815." Morris did not know that no such thing as an 1815 cent existed. For as rarely as they came over his store counter, 1804 cents might as well have not existed either, despite the fact that his business was located only 40 or so miles west of the Mint in Philadelphia. Morris was both a coin collector and an avid diarist. Though his numismatic activities have attracted little attention, Morris' diary is famous for one reason: it records the first observance of Groundhog Day known in the United States.<p>The fame and popularity of the 1804 cent continues the grow in the modern numismatic market, where it is firmly entrenched as a key date Draped Bust cent. At least part of the appeal of the 1804 cent stems from its association by date with some other key date issues from the early United States Mint, including both <em>Guide Book</em> varieties of the 1804 dime, the 1804 quarter and, most famously, the "King of American Coins," the 1804-dated dollar. Although much more is known about the 1804 cent today than when James Morris made his diary entry in 1841, the rarity is still sometimes exaggerated by overzealous catalogers and other numismatic writers. With upward of 1,000 coins extant in all grades, Sheldon-266 is not a rare die marriage in an absolute sense. Since it is the only one known for the date, however, an extant population of 1,000 coins or so confirms the scarcity of the 1804, especially when compared to most others in the Draped Bust cent series.