The SilverTowne Vault Blog

100 Greatest U.S. Coins Series: 1792 Birch Cent

Published 04/17/2024

Early United States coinage is a popular avenue of collecting for obvious reasons. Not only does it tie us to the creation of our country, but the close and sometimes direct involvement of those founding fathers and significant historical figures that only our textbooks have taught us about. The phrase “history in your hands” gets thrown around a lot in the numismatic hobby, but that is exactly what these coins are. The next entry in our blog series covering Whitman Publishing’s fourth edition of the 100 Greatest United States Coins relays that exact sentiment, proving why early coinage is so popular. With guidance from Jeff Garrett, along with help from Ron Guth, we will explore this top 25 pick that is as early as early gets when it comes to United States coinage.

#25 – 1792 Birch Cent

Everything began to happen in 1792, including the United States’ opening of its first official mint. Among the many first tasks to prepare for the mint's establishment was preparing dies for coins. One of the artists to help in doing so was Robert Birch who engraved dies for a large cent piece to be made of pure copper. Early versions of the design showed Liberty with a smaller hairstyle...read more