1803 Draped Bust Cents 1796-1807 VF25BN

History

Philadelphia struck Draped Bust cents from 1796 through 1807 from Robert Scot's design, and 1803 was one of the heavier production years for the denomination. Sheldon-243 is the single die marriage responsible for all stemless-wreath cents of that date. Its reverse die also produced the 1802 S-241 Stemless Wreath variety, but the 1803 strikings show the die before the cracks present on S-241, placing the 1803 coins ahead of the 1802-dated ones in actual order of manufacture. Die-state work on surviving examples follows both the Noyes and Breen sequences, with one specimen catalogued as Noyes Die State A and Breen Die State III.

Details

Robert Scot is credited with the design, struck in copper on a plain-edge planchet of 10.89 grams and 28.00 millimeters. All 1803 cents came from the Philadelphia Mint and carry no mint mark. The calendar-year total for 1803 cents is 3,131,691, a figure covering every die pairing of the date rather than S-243 alone. PCGS tracks the brown examples of this variety under number 36419.

Features

Four diagnostics identify the variety, and any one of them is enough to make the call. The reverse wreath branches end without stems, a widely spaced second S sits below the primary S at the end of STATES, and a second fraction bar runs along the top of the denominator in 1/100. On the obverse, the upper right corner of the 3 in the date nearly touches the bottom of Liberty's bust. The die marriage is also catalogued as B-1 in the Breen reference, and listings commonly render the attribution as S-243, B-1, R.2.

Notable facts

• The Sheldon rarity rating for S-243 is R-2, placing it among the common die marriages of the series, so value tracks condition rather than scarcity.
• PCGS holders read "No Stems" while Sheldon and EAC literature use "Stemless Wreath" for the same coins.
• Early Mint delivery records do not break out production by die pair, so no variety-level mintage figure exists for S-243.
• Reported totals for 1803 cents range from roughly 1.5 million to 3,131,691, with the higher figure the better supported of the two.
• EAC grades assigned to certified examples often fall well below the third-party grade, including an MS65 Brown PCGS coin graded MS60+ by EAC and an XF45 NGC coin graded VF30.
• At least one S-243 traces to the collection of "Col." E.H.R. Green.