Cut and Quartered "Matron Head" Large Cent

[SOSDIVING]

Well here is a slice of pie for Rolesville, NC. Found this cut coin, and thought was colonial, but determined after cleaning it was a Large Cent. Date missing, so I compared to a 1856 Large Cent. Under a USB microscope I found the stars are larger, profile is more slanted, and edge is quite different than a Braided Hair Large Cent. So it end up being a "Matron Head" Large Cent, minted between 1816-1839. Sure wish I could find a "Piece of Eight" next or cut silver. From what it seems, the cut coppers are rare, haven't seen too many on here. Interesting they were still cutting coins in the early 1800s. What cool history!

 

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[pepperj]

Very cool cut piece, not many ever posted up ever.

 

[gwdigger]

Nice "farthing"!

 

[Loco-Digger]

That's a unique find. Yinda had to work for an ID didn't cha? That's part of the fun of this hobby. Congrats on pulling that cut LC.

 

[Showtime2385]

Congrats, Super cool find.

 

[Eastcoasthunter21]

Nice digs. I like those oddball finds. Unique not often seen. Great recovery.

 

[Old Dude]

Neat find. I bet that was a " What the...? " moment

 

[IndianaHunter27]

That's an awesome find there, it's nice to find something unique every once in while,

 

[Diggin Dude]

Very interesting, I swear I saw it cut large sent in a different post a few days ago but it was three quarters left. Put it together we get a whole cent!

Congratulations and HH

 

[Scrappy]

Dunno if I ever saw a quartered large cent. Nice find

 

[jewelerguy]

very cool!

 

[texjim]

Nice recovery..

 

[thrifty76now]

I would say cut large cents to be quite rare,It was much more common to cut up Spanish pieces. I just wonder what could be purchased with 1/4 of a cent.

 

[Erik in NJ]

Much better than cut Spanish silver. As others have said cut large cents fairly rare. I found one cut in half a couple years back to make a half cent.

 

[Nick A]

I would say cut large cents to be quite rare,It was much more common to cut up Spanish pieces. I just wonder what could be purchased with 1/4 of a cent.

Well we did have half cents that circulated until the late 1850s, so even a half cent had value. I can see in very rural areas where coins were scarce, cutting a large cent wouldn't be that crazy an idea.

If $1 in 1820 was equal to about $20 in today's money, then a quarter cent back then would be worth about 50 cents in today's money.

A Dept of Agriculture report says that in 1820, a low paid farm laborer in Massachusetts would be paid .50/day, and that was before 40 hour work weeks, but assuming an 8 hour day, that's 6.25 cents an hour.

-Ten pounds of sugar cost $0.20 (1822)
-One acre in a tract of land of over 400 acres cost $2.00 (Sumter, SC, 1823)
-One bushel (35.2 liters) of potatoes cost $0.12 (1829)
-One set of blue china cost $8.00 (1828)
-One cow cost $12.00 (1829)
-One Pound of Coffee Cost $0.17

 

[Old Dude]

Very interesting, I swear I saw it cut large sent in a different post a few days ago but it was three quarters left. Put it together we get a whole cent!

Congratulations and HH

DD, you may be thinking of the 3/4 hard times token post BigWaveDave revived last week. It was one with the LC pattern.

 

[WeatherNC]

Resurrecting this thread as I found a quartered what I believe to be a Matron Large Cent today hunting a 2nd quarter 1800s homesite. Thanks to the OP, I’ve never found a large cent so the original post helped greatly in nailing down what type. Still after my first one (whole). My heart was pounding at first thinking cut silver, but then I surmised a cut large cent. Found in Eastern NC.

 

[Digger RJ]

Well here is a slice of pie for Rolesville, NC. Found this cut coin, and thought was colonial, but determined after cleaning it was a Large Cent. Date missing, so I compared to a 1856 Large Cent. Under a USB microscope I found the stars are larger, profile is more slanted, and edge is quite different than a Braided Hair Large Cent. So it end up being a "Matron Head" Large Cent, minted between 1816-1839. Sure wish I could find a "Piece of Eight" next or cut silver. From what it seems, the cut coppers are rare, haven't seen too many on here. Interesting they were still cutting coins in the early 1800s. What cool history!

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Very Cool!!! Congrats!!!!

 

[Gare]

One just has to wonder how they cut the large cents back then

 

[pepperj]

One just has to wonder how they cut the large cents back then

They probably used a chisel to quarter coinage. Thin silver was done this way, and with a large meat cleaver on the chopping block.