1800 Draped Bust Large Cent
Circulation strike struck at the Philadelphia Mint · 2,822,175 made
- Mintage
- 2,822,175
- Metal
- 100% copper
- Weight
- 10.89 g
- Diameter
- 29 mm
Original illustration. Tap to flip. Not a photograph of the actual coin.
Face value · Metal value · Small premium · Collector premium · Significant rarity. We use bands because prices change daily.
What is an 1800 Draped Bust Large Cent worth?
Age alone gives this coin a small premium, even worn. Sharp details and original surfaces push it higher.
What would make yours worth more:
- Uncirculated condition with full original luster
- Full red copper color (labeled RD) rather than brown
- A die variety or minting error
For market prices, check recent sold results for certified coins in the same grade.
Quick answers
- Is the 1800 Draped Bust Large Cent rare?
- No. 2.8 million were made, a typical run for the series. Condition and varieties decide its value, not the date.
- Where is the mint mark on an 1800 Draped Bust Large Cent?
- No mint mark. All struck in Philadelphia.
- Which Philadelphia dates near 1800 are scarcer?
- The 1799 at 42,540, the 1804 at 96,500, the 1796 at 363,375, plus 4 more. So the 1800 is one of the easier dates of its stretch.
- How many 1800 Draped Bust Large Cent coins were made?
- 2,822,175.
What to check on your 1800
- There's no mint mark on this one, so the date and condition are what matter.
- Old coins pick up damage over a long life. Look for holes, bends, scratches or signs of cleaning before you judge the grade, because a damaged coin sells for a fraction of a problem-free one.
- Judge the grade under good light. Check the hair above the forehead and ear and the drapery lines at the shoulder. Original, smooth brown surfaces are worth far more than cleaned or porous coins of the same sharpness.
Most surviving coppers from 1800 show some corrosion, scratches or porous surfaces. Smooth, evenly toned coins are much scarcer than the mintage suggests, so surface quality matters as much as the grade.
The story of the 1800
Philadelphia ramped up hard in 1800: 2,822,175 coins, about 66 times the 1799 run. The next year it made 1.4 million (1801).
No other mint struck it for circulation that year, so every 1800 you find is from Philadelphia.
Philadelphia struck the Draped Bust Large Cent in 12 issues between 1796 and 1807. By mintage this one lands in the more common half, while the key for that mint is the 1799 (42,540). Within the 1800s it's 6th smallest of 8, between the 1801 (1.4 million) and the 1803 (3.1 million).
Gilbert Stuart's portrait and the overdate years (1796 to 1800)
Robert Scot adapted Gilbert Stuart's portrait of Liberty for the cent in late 1796, keeping the 168 grain weight. The early dies vary a great deal: 1796 alone has several reverse styles plus the famous LIHERTY error, where the B was cut over an R. In 1797 the Mint used both stemmed and stemless wreaths. Copper planchets bought from Matthew Boulton's works in Birmingham, England, began to supplement American copper late in the decade and improved quality.
The Mint saved money by reusing old dies, which created the 1798/7 overdate, the 1799/8 and the two 1800 overdates (over 1798 and over 179). The 1799 is the key of the whole design: only 42,540 cents were reported that year, partly because yellow fever closed the Mint and many cents struck in 1799 still carried the 1798 date. Most 1799 cents survive heavily worn. Altered dates are common, so experts check the shape of every digit.
Dies in this period were cut and recut by hand, so a single date can show several arrangements of digits, stems and berries in the wreath. The 1799 overdate and the 1800 overdates over 1798 and 1799 belong to these years. Collectors attribute the different dies by Sheldon numbers, from Penny Whimsy, the standard reference on early cents.
How to recognize it
Liberty faces right with her hair tied by a ribbon and a drape across her bust. LIBERTY is above and the date below. The reverse shows a wreath around ONE CENT, the fraction 1/100 beneath it and UNITED STATES OF AMERICA around the rim. Die cracks, recut dates and stems on the wreath create dozens of varieties that specialists collect by their Sheldon numbers.
Mintage chart
Specifications
| Series | Draped Bust Large Cent (1796–1807) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1800 |
| Mint | Philadelphia Mint |
| Mint mark | None |
| Strike type | Circulation strike |
| Mintage | 2,822,175 |
| Face value | 1¢ |
| Composition | 100% copper |
| Weight | 10.89 grams |
| Diameter | 29 mm |
| Edge | Plain |
| Designer | Robert Scot, after a portrait by Gilbert Stuart |
Mintage: United States cent mintage figures (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0), compiled from US Mint records and the Guide Book of United States Coins. How we build these pages.